


Anchor

by foxyplaydate



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Gore, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 23:49:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 49,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxyplaydate/pseuds/foxyplaydate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles learns a lot about himself. Like how he has a knack for writing, or how he actually really likes boys, or the fact that he’s apparently this really powerful witch. He also learns that he is really kind of a lot in love with a certain alpha werewolf. Who might kind of like him back. There’s just these people who want him dead that he’s got to take care of and then everything will be good. Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vehicular Homicide

**Author's Note:**

> I would really like to thank [Ryan](http://xinjay.tumblr.com) for all the artwork and [Rachel](http://iquitelikeitthatway.tumblr.com) for being my wonderful beta and part-time muse.

Stiles hated werewolves. He was done with them. Starting right now. It wasn’t a very difficult decision to make as he assessed the claw marks in the back seat of his jeep. He ruled out Scott as the culprit because the boy had gained an enormous amount of control over himself since the Kanima situation had been dealt with. Isaac, too, was an unlikely person of guilt, though he hadn’t mastered control of the shift he had been able to stay in control over his actions and emotions. Boyd and Erica hadn’t been seen in a few weeks so they probably weren’t the jeep vandals either, but Derek and Peter had been doing this for years. So the only conclusion Stiles could come up with was severing all contact with anything supernatural.

He buckled himself in as he headed off to school, going against his pledge to himself by texting Scott that he would be there in a few minutes and to have his nose ready. Stiles wasn’t planning on paying for the damages done to his backseat and he didn’t want his dad to see them anyways because it would certainly end some privileges for who knows how long.

He received a text from Scott shortly afterwards saying that he’d be there as soon as he heard Stiles pull in which just annoyed him further because he was probably on the other side of the school or something and was using his wolf powers to hear him.

The drive to school, other than the attack on his poor, defenseless jeep, was relatively boring. It’d been boring since the Kanima had turned into regular, dickhead Jackson. Which sparked an idea in his head; it could’ve been Jackson. He didn’t have a good anchor yet and could only hold onto himself for part of the time when he shifted. It took Lydia’s actual, physical presence to calm him down. And Jackson hated him anyways so it made more sense than Erica or Boyd coming back just to say ‘fuck you, Derek and pack’.

Scott was waiting in his parking spot when he got there and immediately climbed into Stiles’s jeep.

“Why do you need my nose?” Scott asked, confused. Stiles didn’t say anything. He just smiled, his lips pressed tightly together and glanced with his eyes to the backseat. Scott turned in his seat to look back and took in the damage with the look of a dumbstruck puppy on his face. His mouth slightly open and forming a loose ‘O’ shape and his eyebrows pushed together as closely as they could be without being turning into the singular form of the word. “Oh…well, it wasn’t me.”

“Quick to jump to the defense there, Scott, just get back there and sniff it out and tell me whodunit so I can make them buy me a new backseat,” Stiles said with greater than irritation filtering through his voice.

Scott climbed over the center console and into the backseat. He sat there for a second looking at Stiles with the same dumbstruck puppy look on his face, only now his head was cocked to the side.

“You look ridiculous, now can you please get to pretending you’re useful and not just sit there and stare at me?” Stiles asked gesturing wildly to the general vicinity of the backseat.

Scott sniffed around, it was kind of entertaining if you tried to look at it like Scott wasn’t a werewolf with super-human smell, but since he was a werewolf it was getting harder for Stiles to find amusement in his mannerisms. They were just normal things that werewolves did. Especially since this particular mannerism was going to get him a new backseat.

“How long does it take to identify a smell, Scott?” Stiles asked after five minutes had passed, fingers rattling on the steering wheel. School was going to start soon and he was going to need the time to plan his attack on the culprit. They were stronger than him, after all, he was going to need some kind of leverage to use against them. It was probably useless though, one-hundred percent of all werewolves Stiles had met were too stubborn to deal with rationally.

“I don’t know this scent,” Scott said, a look of defeat falling over his face and body. “It’s someone new.”

“Someone who we have never met before, who just happens to be a werewolf, attacked my jeep?” Stiles asked, unbelieving. “Why would they do that? Why my jeep?”

“I don’t know,” Scott said, climbing back into the front seat. They both got out of the wounded vehicle and headed towards campus.

“If I take this to Derek and he tells me it was you I’m going to kick your little wolfy ass, Scott, I hope you know that,” Stiles said to which Scott smiled at the ground and chuckled lightly, “You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. Stop laughing. Stop.” Scott didn’t stop laughing until Stiles changed the subject.

“So how’d Jackson do last night? Do we know?” Stiles asked, and was met by Lydia coming face to face with him in public. In front of the school.

“Jackson was with me last night and as you very well know, Stiles, he did very, very well,” She said before turning and walking away, her vibrant red curls bouncing behind her. Stiles was left open mouthed with a confused Scott in the hallway.

“What did that mean?” Scott asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” Stiles responded. What would Stiles know about how good Jackson was at anything? Except how much of a douchebag he was. Sometimes he was unsure about Lydia. By sometimes he meant almost never. As in he was pretty damn sure about Lydia.

“Well, Jackson didn’t do it because as long as he’s with Lydia we know he’s completely in control of himself,” Scott said. They turned into their first and only class together this year. Stiles had gotten placed in nearly all advanced classes this year, while Scott had been placed in remedial and basic classes.

The only class that Stiles wasn’t able to be placed advanced in was his physics class and he was a hundred thousand percent sure that it was because Mr. Harris hated him completely and irrationally. There was nothing wrong with having a minute, not zero, ability to focus. So he was placed in Physics 1 with Scott who had somehow scraped by with decent enough grades to not have to retake physical science. Stiles had also been prescribed a new medication to get a grip on his ADHD.

They sat together in the middle of the class and forced their way through the boring lecture on how Junior year was going to be their toughest year academically and Stiles noticed that Scott looked more nervous than he had even facing the Kanima.

As they left class Stiles told Scott about his plan to text Derek. Scott said it was a good idea and they went their different ways for their next class before break. Stiles shot off a quick text to Derek about his jeep and asked if he could bring it by to get looked at before shoving his phone back into his pocket for his first Trig class.

He had class with Lydia who sat next to him in the front of the class and Stiles tapped his foot nervously as she leaned over to talk to him.

“I didn’t expect to see you in here,” She said with a smile on her face before turning to the white board and taking out her notebook and pen. He didn’t know how she handled herself so well. You could almost never see that she was freaking out unless you knew where to look, but even now it was hard for Stiles to read her. She seemed genuinely happy to him for once. He sighed to himself as he realized that Jackson was really the love of her life and he really didn’t have a chance.

Part of the class was spent working together on a sheet of Pythagorean identities and Lydia blew through their shared sheet in two minutes flat. That field’s medal was probably sitting somewhere waiting for her to just get her name out there before she would claim it as she rightfully could.

Stiles’s next class was the highest level of English that Beacon Hills offered. It was Creative Writing and their curriculum was packed to the hour as far as Stiles could see. They were to keep a journal that was to be turned in at the end of every week with observations of what was around them in detail at specific intervals throughout the day, as well as a final project of a manuscript by the end of the first semester that was to have a chapter turned in every week for editing and review. He was seriously regretting not taking the step down Arthurian Legend class instead of this one as he saw that they also had an extensive reading list that would need to be filled as well.

That first class, the teacher made them do timed drills where they had to write openings to multiple stories based on prompts that Mrs. Haskins had predetermined on the board. She was clearly more evil than Gerard Argent and had never been hugged as child. Stiles was considering giving her her first ever hug when she deemed his prompted work acceptable and gave him a B, at which; Stiles decided against hugging her ever in his or her life.

Mrs. Haskins was a tall woman who had decided that wearing the largest pair of glasses in the history of mankind would probably do her vision some good, which was obviously wrong if she thought that Stiles’s work was only B material. She was about four hundred years old, but had a full head of pure white curls that fell past her ears.

Stiles left class with a grumbly feeling in his head as he headed towards Honors History. Allison was in class with him, but she sat on the opposite side of the room and didn’t make eye contact or return his half-hearted wave. Deciding that she was probably still confused on how she felt about werewolves, he left it alone.

Nearly forgetting about his text to Derek he pulled out his phone and read the response quickly before shoving it back in his pocket. Yes, he would be going to see Derek at his new apartment in the middle of town before going home that day.

The rest of the day went by quickly. He had lunch with Scott and Isaac and then after that was his Study Hall period. He’d decided that his elective that year had to be put to better use than drama or band and decided to take a class at Beacon Hills City College that could prove useful. So his sixth period he drove the fifteen minutes to the other side of Beacon Hills and signed in for his first Mythology 101 class. The professor walked in and he nearly had a heart attack as he saw her sit down on the front edge of her desk to address the class.

“Hello, everyone, my name is Professor Morrell and welcome to Mythology One-Oh-One,” She smiled at them each in turn and they received their copies of the curriculum and Ms- Professor Morrell talked about the general course of study that semester. They would start off with Greek and Roman Mythology and would follow with Celtic and English Mythology, eventually working their way over to Native American Mythology and Polynesian Mythology. Nothing, so far, that would pertain to mythological creatures to Stiles’s dismay. He deemed his attempt at being clever and useful a toss in the bucket.

The class was an hour and a half long, and Stiles felt so out of it by the end. He’d filled up twelve pages with notes and broken one pen and two pencils. He resolved to bring his laptop to the next class so that he had a better chance of keeping up, because there was somewhere between Zeus and Poseidon where he was pretty sure he missed patron god of the spoons or something like that. He wasn’t sure.

After class he approached the desk to turn in his signed guarantee that he would complete the required assignments by their assigned dates to Professor Morrell. “Hi, Ms- I mean Professor, Um, here,” He said, handing over his slip. She smiled and asked him about how he’d been doing. He said he’d been doing good. Nothing exciting had happened. And she told him that that was good. He needed a break from all the craziness.

They laughed and Stiles said goodbye, heading back to his jeep. He’d almost forgotten about the situation with his backseat, but was quickly reminded as he climbed inside. He groaned from exhaustion as he considered going home for the night to do his homework, but resolved that that would extend the time it took to fix his backseat and therefore created a greater chance of his father finding out which would pretty much guarantee his grounding for life.

So he headed down the road towards Derek’s old house before he remembered that he would have to go to Derek’s new apartment which was, in fact, in the opposite direction and actually a part of civilization for once. Stiles wondered when he had moved and why he had not known sooner. You’d think his father would mention something like the movements of a once-suspected mass murderer.

The apartment was part of a set of much nicer apartments in Beacon Hills and apparently Derek had a lot of money stashed away somewhere. Although, that was obvious from his Camaro. He pulled into the parking garage and called Derek, letting him know that he was there. Derek was at his side in a few minutes and they were reenacting the scene from that morning, Stiles in the front seat, Derek in the back.

It only took about thirty seconds for Derek to establish that the scent was no one from Beacon Hills, and no one that he recognized either.

“You people are useless to me,” Stiles said as he started his jeep. Derek climbed into the front seat, which called for a lot more adjustment on Stiles’ part than it did for Scott because Derek was about three hundred times bigger than Scott. As a result, Stiles got up close and personal with Derek’s ass for about five seconds while the older werewolf maneuvered into the front seat. “What do I tell my dad?”

“A wild animal got into your car?” Derek asked, “Would he actually think you did this much damage?”

“My dad doesn’t really expect much less than this from me at this point,” Stiles told Derek.

“Does your dad know you drove it to school?” Derek asked him.

“Well, he got up after me and left for work so no he probably didn’t notice that his son’s jeep was missing from his driveway this morning or that his son wasn’t home this morning,” Stiles replied half angrily, but mostly with sarcasm. Derek sighed and ran his hand over his head.

“Stiles, you aren’t giving me a lot to work with, here,” Derek said, “And anyways you’re more worried about how your dad will react than a strange wolf who seems to have singled you out in this town. On my side your priorities need straightening out.”

“I honestly don’t even care about this wolf because as far as we know there’s only one of them and about a hundred of us so why should I really worry about them? Unless there’s a special smell for a really dangerous wolf out there that you’re not telling us about then I think I should be more worried about being grounded until I move out, which happens to be over two years away for me. That’s a long time to be grounded Derek!”

Derek regarded Stiles as if he were a lunatic.

“I’m about this close to slamming you into your steering wheel,” he said, holding his index finger and thumb up with less than a millimeter of space between them. “No, there isn’t a scent that identifies if the wolf is an alpha or a beta, but there is one that identifies an omega and that scent isn’t present, which means that this wolf has a pack.”

“A pack? So there’s more?” Stiles asked, and finally Derek was glad for a response that seemed to bring Stiles to his senses. He was worried now and that was a good thing.

“Yes, there’s a pack. This was meant to be a message, but I don’t know what it means. They might be upset that you’re human and warning you to stay away or it could be a warning to the pack as a whole. I don’t know who they are or what they want, but this is definitely a message that says ‘We’re here and we’re coming,’ so you should be very worried about this instead of the chance that your father will ground you,” Derek explained.

“Oh,” was all Stiles said at first, but a few moments later he said, “Man, I was hoping we’d be done with all this murderous supernatural bullshit.” Derek laughed and Stiles asked him what he thought was so funny.

“When you’re involved with the supernatural, Stiles, there’s never an end to the bullshit,” Derek said and Stiles thought that that was a pretty good response. Plus he liked the way Derek smiled, he definitely didn’t smile enough. At least he never smiled at Stiles so he never got the full effect of it. Which was pretty dazzling. Was there something more than pretty dazzling? Because if there was, then that’s what Stiles was feeling. More than pretty dazzled.

“So, uh, I’m taking Mythology at BHCC this year,” Stiles said awkwardly. Derek looked at him sideways for a second before responding with a drawn out ‘Okay?’ “Ms. Morrell is the professor. She was mine and Lydia’s counselor during the Kanima stuff…yeah, I don’t know why I told you that. I usually only say stupid stuff like this in front of Lydia and I’m going to stop talking now.” Derek was smirking at him as he climbed out of the jeep. Stiles was blushing and wishing he had control over his mouth.

“Come inside, Stiles, we’ll figure out something about fixing your car,” Derek said. They went inside and Derek told him to wait there while he went into the other room, pulling out his cell phone as he left. A buzzer went off on Stiles’s phone that told him to describe his surroundings. It was a settings exercise that was supposed to take place in his room or at his house and he really didn’t want Derek to walk in on him writing down in detail the layout of his living room.

He sighed as he pulled out a notebook from his pocket and began to write down as much as he could which he would transcript to his journal later that night when he was doing the rest of his enormous pile of homework.

The green felt couch with matching loveseat in one corner of the room was where Stiles sat. There was a flat screen on the opposing wall and a glass coffee table with wood legs that still had the grooves and knots of a tree trunk holding the top up. There were a few potted plants and flowers and one picture frame. It was on the center of the far wall and held a single picture of a girl who looked around Derek’s age in it. She had long dark brown hair with striking green eyes and she was laughing.

“That’s Laura,” Derek said, “Peter gave it to me out of his laptop.” He came in with a soda in one hand and a beer in the other. Stiles wasn’t sure when he’d stood up and crossed to the other side of the room or when he’d filled four pages of notes on Derek Hale’s living room where he was currently writing down everything he could about his dead sister.

Stiles did the best he could to stealthily stick the notebook in his back pocket as he accepted the coke from Derek.

“I have a friend who’s going to fix your jeep for you, but he’s got to get it tonight. Call your dad and tell him that you’re at Scott’s for the night,” Derek said, “There’s a guest room you can stay in. Go clean out your jeep, he’ll be here in a half hour.” Stiles went out with a plastic Safeway bag that Derek had given him, and he had a laugh over imagining Derek walking around the supermarket buying toilet paper and cereal and coke because he figured Derek would just go out and kill a deer or something and eat it there. Although, thinking about it now, it seemed kind of ridiculous because Scott didn’t go out and kill bunnies to cook in werewolf ovens so he didn’t really know why he just assumed that of Derek.

He shoved everything inside the plastic bag and went back inside, stopping to dump the trash in a can outside. He called his dad and told him he was staying at Scott’s for the night. Derek’s friend came and picked up the jeep and said he’d have it back by morning to which Stiles half-willingly handed over the keys to his only vehicle.

Only about an hour and a half later while Stiles was doing homework in the guest room (really, his teachers were all making a campaign for dictatorship this year) did Derek interrupt.

“I made dinner,” Derek said, leaning on the doorway.

“You cook?” Stiles asked incredulously before he could stop himself. Derek smiled and left him there. Stiles followed after throwing his homework into a pile. He would have plenty of time to finish it before school tomorrow.

Dinner, it turned out, was actually hand prepared and cooked by Derek Hale. He’d made them steak and potatoes and not just mashed potatoes (which anyone can make and can’t really go wrong on) but roasted potatoes with olive oil and garlic and everything. Stiles was very impressed and mentally awarded him four stars.

Five when he took his first bite of steak.

“Um…thank you for…doing this,” Stiles said meekly, “I know you don’t have to and all but-“

“It’s no problem. I’m trying to take better care of my pack,” Derek interrupted him, continuing eating like it was nothing.

“Your pack?” Stiles asked. Derek only glanced up from his plate to meet Stiles’s gaze momentarily. “So you consider me part of your pack, even though I’m human?”

“There were humans in my family, but we still considered them family,” Derek said and Stiles guessed that made pretty much a lot of sense when he put it that way. “And no, you’re not family, but you’re an important part of this pack nonetheless. Especially since through you, Scott is part of the pack as well.”

“Oh, so I’m a tool to get to Scott then?” Stiles asked, raising his eyebrows at Derek as he continued to eat his food. “God, Derek, I could kiss you this tastes better than anything my dad has ever made.”

“Please don’t. I’ve already had to watch my family die,” Derek joked and Stiles nearly choked on his food. Derek could not only cook, but he could also make jokes. They stopped eating for a few seconds to look at each other, Derek expectantly and Stiles in shock, before they burst into laughter.

The rest of the night Stiles and Derek watched TV, drank soda and didn’t really talk much except to argue over how Dean and Cas were going to get out of Purgatory alive after watching the season seven finale of Supernatural that Derek had recorded.

“I bet Crowley’ll do it. It’s obvious that he has a secret crush on Cas,” Stiles argued.

“That doesn’t even make sense, Stiles. If a demon is going to rescue them, then it’ll be Meg. But they’re going to just appear back on Earth in the middle of nowhere, like they usually do when they come back to life with no explanation until halfway through three seasons from now,” Derek reasoned.

“What do you mean it doesn’t make sense? Without Cas and Dean, Crowley doesn’t get to have any fun. He rules hell, but he’s bored unless there’s someone fighting him, and no other hunter is brave enough to take on the king of hell,” Stiles said.

“It doesn’t even matter; you’re getting too into it. Just watch the show,” Derek said and Stiles turned towards the TV with his shoulder sunken, “Look the season eight premier is on Wednesday. You can come back then and we’ll see who’s right.”

Stiles perked up as he jumped off the couch and stretched, “It’s a date. I’m going to bed,” Stiles said, “Look, uh, thanks again.”

“You’re welcome,” Derek answered. Stiles wandered off into the guest room and was asleep within seconds of hitting the mattress. He didn’t even get the chance to take off his pants. It was the most exhausting day Stiles had had since fighting the Kanima and he wasn’t used to waking up early or going to bed at a decent hour yet because it was literally the first day of school so he hadn’t adjusted.

The next morning Stiles woke up half an hour early and topped off his homework. His keys were on the living room table and Stiles left a note saying he’d left and thanked Derek again. In his jeep the back seat looked better than the rest of the car did and Stiles couldn’t help but smile to himself as he drove to school.

When he got there Scott was waiting for him and he climbed out of his jeep.

“You smell like Derek and…Derek,” Scott said, scrunching his face. “Why do you smell like Derek?”

“Oh, I stayed at Derek’s new place last night, he got my car fixed and…yeah,” Stiles said, “It was great. Did you know Derek could cook? Like, really cook. He made steak and it was awesome,” he said, sing songing the last word.

“Derek got your car fixed? That quickly? What did he say?” Scott asked, and Stiles filled him in that there was another pack in town which he was clearly not paying attention because the revelation that Derek could cook should have taken priority over nuclear warfare.

“Yeah, and that pretty much sums up my night. How was yours?” Stiles asked. Scott was speechless, which wasn’t unusual. He didn’t do anything near as entertaining as Stiles did last night. He stayed home and ate top ramen and did his homework for once.  
“Stiles?” Scott asked with a hint of nervousness in his voice, “Um d’you think you could go over my physics homework with me?” And Stiles smiled at his friend.

“No, I definitely won’t, it’s my end goal to keep you in high school for as long as possible for being a complete asshole,” Stiles replied with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

“Quit being a dick and check my homework. I want to actually do better this year.” Stiles smiled and decided that starting school this year wasn’t actually that bad after all. As long as you ignored the threatening new wolf pack that was apparently in town and ready to wreak havoc. Which Stiles did since he and his friends were pretty awesome at taking down the bad guys if he didn’t say so himself.


	2. New Students

Tuesday started off with no surprises waiting for Stiles anywhere. Scott did really well on his Physics homework, mind you, it was still the second day of school. It did include a text from Derek asking him what he wanted for dinner. Which put a whole lot of unnecessary pressure on Stiles because how did he know what to pick for dinner? What if he picked something Derek didn’t like? And he couldn’t just say he didn’t care because then it might look like he was just taking advantage of Derek. He couldn’t say anything too complicated either because he didn’t want him to have to work too hard just to make a two person dinner but he was also afraid to say they could just order-in because he didn’t want to insult Derek’s culinary skills. Though he did say he’d kiss him over the steak. Maybe if he worded it correctly Derek wouldn’t be insulted in any way.

Make whatever you feel like, I’m not really picky and if the steak was anything to go by I’m sure it’ll be delicious. Seriously, man, can’t get over that you can actually cook.

Okay maybe it was a little longer than it needed to be, but at least he got something that he was pretty sure wouldn’t offend or insult Derek in any way. The best Stiles could hope for was that he would just come off as his usual mildly irritating self. Although, that might not be the prime conclusion that he’d want to appear to for Derek.

A simple, alright be here at six, was the response he got from Derek as he walked to his creative writing class. He sat down in the same seat that he’d sat in before and pulled out his journal. There was a new girl at the front of the class talking to Mrs. Haskins. She was wearing a leather jacket, black knee-length skirt and military boots. Her hair was medium brown and cropped to about ear length and was wavy, but tamed. She had her messenger bag hung lazily off of one shoulder and was leaning on the opposite hip.

“Class, this is our new student, Gabbi, please make her feel welcome here,” Mrs. Haskins sounded less than sure of the student body’s ability to make a new student feel welcome.

Gabbi looked around the classroom before her eyes landed on Stiles. She smirked and worked her way through the desks to sit at the one adjacent to his. She leaned over and whispered, “You’re Stiles Stilinski, right?”

“How do you know who I am?” Stiles whispered back. He was pretty sure that nobody in the class knew who he was. He couldn’t even guarantee that Mrs. Haskins would remember who he was.

“Everyone knows who you are, Stiles,” Gabbi said, “Well…everyone who matters at least,” She crossed her legs and leaned forward on one elbow, facing the front of the class. Stiles had no understanding of anything that had happened just then because literally no one knew who he was until he’d scored at the lacrosse game last year. It was highly likely that no one would remember who he was until he scored again at the next lacrosse game.

They did more timed drills that class, followed by a thirty minute free time to think of a theme and plot for their manuscripts which would be due at the end of the semester. Gabbi smiled to herself and Stiles glanced over to her prompted work and saw that she had received one hundred percent on it. She’d also finished her plot and theme for her manuscript in the first ten minutes and had received a one hundred on that as well. Stiles again received two B grades.

He had his history class with Allison before lunch, but he was unsure of whether Allison would even talk to him in that class anyways or even acknowledge that he was there. She did acknowledge him though by smiling weakly and lifting four fingers from her crossed arms in the smallest attempt at a wave that Stiles had ever witnessed.

Gabbi was in that class as well with Stiles, but this time she sat over by Allison where Stiles saw them begin talking. Allison had been the new student before and Stiles supposed that that was how they started talking. He could see Allison agreeing to something and then writing something down for Gabbi. He didn’t know why he was so interested, but he was.

There was another new student in that class. She was Asian, with long black hair. She regarded the classroom with a bored expression and smiled more weakly than Allison did after being introduced. She sat in the middle of the classroom and Stiles forgot her name. Whoever she was she didn’t say anything weird like Gabbi did.

When lunch finally came Stiles met up with Scott and Isaac and the first thing he said was how some new girl knew who he was and Scott and Isaac just laughed.

“Dude, it’s not that weird. You won the championship game. Everyone knows who you are now,” Scott said. “It’s why we practiced so much this summer, so that you could maintain that reputation, right?”

Stiles shuffled his feet a bit at the posed question. He hadn’t thought about it over the summer, but given the amount of work that he would be doing in class, he didn’t have a lot of time for lacrosse anymore.

“About that,” Stiles said, rubbing the back of his head, “I don’t really have time for lacrosse anymore. Especially since I’m taking an off campus class at BHCC and we have practice right after school. It’s okay though, I’m better off without all the attention anyways,” Stiles said, to Scott’s bewilderment. It might be because lacrosse was almost literally the only thing that Scott could do really well anymore, but it had never really been Stiles’ place. The first time that he was ever on the field was last year and he enjoyed it. He loved being cheered for. But it just didn’t feel like something that he wanted to do anymore.

He practiced over the summer with Scott and sometimes with Danny or Isaac, and he had a load of fun with them and decided, unconsciously, that he enjoyed the sport more for fun than for competition.

“Whatever, man, you’re going to lose your status, but if you don’t really care…” Scott said, he was obviously upset by Stiles’ apparent change of heart over lacrosse and it was almost enough to make Stiles feel guilty. Almost.

“Look, I’ll still be at every game, but instead I’ll be in the stands. It’s only a few rows back from where I usually sat anyways,” Stiles joked and Scott cracked a smile which Stiles counted as a win in his book. His phone buzzed and Stiles spent the rest of lunch hurriedly writing down as much about the crowded cafeteria as he could. Scott and Isaac talked to each other about controlling the shift during the game and preferred methods of getting back under control if a player on the opposing, and occasionally same, team was just a little more than aggravating.

When the lunch bell rang, Stiles wouldn’t have noticed it if Scott hadn’t snapped him out of his trance-like state of writing panic. It was the second day of school and so far he had a B in Creative Writing which was not going to get him into any of the colleges he planned on applying to later that year.

He had Study hall that period which took place in the Library, so he made his way in that direction after stopping at his locker to grab an extra binder. He pulled out his copy of The Great Gatsby as well and decided he might as well get a head start on his reading. He’d purchased his own copy so that he didn’t have to worry about as many sticky notes or about highlighting in the book.

On the way to Study Hall there was a girl staring at a map of the school with a bag that looked too big for her on her back who looked too confused for someone on the second day of school.

“Everything alright?” Stiles asked her because, one, he was just that kind hearted soul that would help anyone who looked like they needed it and, two, she was too adorable to pass by without offering a hello or, in this case, friendly help.

“Um, no, not really,” She said and when she extended her vowels like a child would. She was almost too precious for Stiles to handle, “I have Study Hall right now and I haven’t been able to find the Library anywhere. I was kind of hoping that it didn’t exist and I could just go home after this.”

“Unfortunately for the both of us, the Library does exist and is just around the corner from here. I have Study Hall this period, too. I’ll show you,” Stiles said gesturing in the direction of the library. “But don’t get used to it, I’m a very busy man who doesn’t always have time to walk pretty girls to class.”

The girl giggled at his teasing and Stiles almost puffed out his chest in pride. “I’m sure that I’ll know where it is for tomorrow, thank you though,” the girl replied.

“So are you another new student?” Stiles asked her and she nodded.

“I’m Luna,” she said with a smile.

“Stiles,” he responded, returning his smile. Luna was tiny, and had long wavy hair. She had a bright personality and attitude though and she was possibly cuter in looks and behavior than a white bunny rabbit.

“Oh, I know exactly who you are, Stiles,” Luna said and Stiles looked at her puzzled, “You won the championship lacrosse game last year. Everyone’s talking about you.” Oh. It was all just about lacrosse then. Stiles wasn’t used to being well known and quite frankly he didn’t know if he really enjoyed it. He liked saying his name and then getting quizzical and started expression at hearing the strange word. Every once in a while he would get a laugh and then people would ask, “Really?” when they realized he wasn’t laughing at his joke as well.

“Yeah,” was all Stiles could say in response to that. He pulled out his phone when it buzzed in his pocket and saw that he had another text from Derek. Favorite kind of soda? Stiles didn’t know. He just drank whatever was offered to him. He responded with tequila as a joke and was met with a ‘Seriously.’ In response. He answered back with a ‘Coke is fine’ and received a smiley face in return.

Since when did Derek text with smiley faces? It was highly out of character for him and apparently Derek thought so too because he got another text from him saying to ignore the smile and that he was just trying it out, but didn’t like it. Stiles laughed at his phone and realized he had pretty much been ignoring Luna for about a minute now. The students were almost all inside their classes now and they were the last ones in the hallway, but it didn’t matter because Study Hall wasn’t in session for ten minutes after the final bell rang.

“Someone special?” Luna asked him with a coy smile on her face.

“No, just a friend, really,” Stiles answered, shoving his phone back in his pocket.

“What do you mean by ‘really?” She asked and what kind of question was that anyways? And what did he mean by really? Sure, Derek was an attractive guy. Hell, he was much more than attractive. Especially when he smiled. But he was pretty sure that, not only was Derek straight, but also not going to be interested in a seventeen year old boy like himself. Even if he weren’t straight. Derek could literally have anybody that he wanted if that person was sexually oriented towards him, so Stiles didn’t really fit the bill as somebody’s first pick. Especially when there were people like Danny or Lydia or even Jackson, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, out there.

“Um, I didn’t mean anything?” Stiles replied, but regretted turning the statement into a question because of the raised eyebrow that he got in reply, “He’s honestly just a friend,” Stiles tried to say definitively, but Luna just giggled again.

“You’re getting awfully defensive about this,” she teased in a sing song voice. The two of them sat down at a table and pulled out their binders as they argued under hushed voices about the likelihood that Stiles really did have a special someone that he may or may not have been texting in the hallway. To which Stiles was arguing that maybe he was laughing at his phone because of a funny Failbook post on Facebook. It was certainly a possibility, but he was also definitely typing a few messages out and they probably weren’t comments on the same Failbook post regardless of how funny it may or may not have been.

They were interrupted by Gabbi who took a seat at the same table as them, “Looks like we have three periods together, Stiles,” She said with a thin smile. “How’s it going, Luna?” Apparently they knew each other because Luna adopted a smile that Stiles was almost a thousand percent sure shouldn’t fit on a person so tiny at Gabbi’s arrival.

“Great,” Luna replied without asking how Gabbi was in turn.

“You’re not stalking me because I’m a big lacrosse hot-shot or anything, are you?” Stiles joked but Gabbi only smiled at him. Stiles turned his attention to his book. It seemed pretty interesting, but mainly because Stiles was a huge fan of the twenties and basically wanted to be a mob boss from the thirties, and that was almost the twenties, right?

“You’re reading The Great Gatsby? Is that for Haskins’s class? I’ve already read it, what was it, Luna, six?”

“Seven”

“Seven times, so I’m just going to skim through it and probably recycle one of my old essays,” Gabbi said. She hadn’t taken out a binder or a notebook or anything that looked like she was going to be spending Study Hall for anything that might possibly be related to studying at all. “Where’s Lana at? She should be here by now.”

“She probably found better friends than us,” Luna said and Stiles was trying to concentrate on his book, but he couldn’t not pay attention to the two girls he was sitting with.

“Probably,” Gabbi said in response before pulling out a single sheet of paper and a pencil. She began to doodle on the paper for the remainder of the hour at which Stiles got a chance to get a little into his book. He started outlining plot points and possible motifs within the text so that he didn’t feel like he was completely wasting his valuable time. He might as well work on the ever growing mountain of homework that already felt Everest high by the end of the second day of school.

When the bell rang Stiles checked his phone, but had received no new messages from Derek. He left the library and received an unexpected hug from Luna as he left and he was surprised at how much strength the tiny girl had as she squeezed him hard enough to cause a slight ache in his ribs.

“Thanks for helping me find the library again, Stiles,” Luna said as she and Gabbi took off in the opposite direction of the parking lot. Stiles was greeted at his jeep by Scott who had a mixture of excited and worried look on his face.

“What’s up?” Stiles asked as he fiddled with his keys. He honestly had just enough time from the end of class bell to when his class started to get to BHCC on the other side of town so he hoped it would be quick.

“I smelled it!” Scott said excitedly and without much further explanation. He lost his perk as he realized that Stiles had no idea whatsoever as to what he was talking about. “Whoever clawed your backseat? I smelled them again,” Scott explained.

“You should try getting to the point more often,” Stiles said, “Because that’s important information. Do you know who it is?” He asked.

“No, I just kind of caught the scent in the hallway on my way to class,” Scott said, “But I know which hallway they’ll be in and I can be late to class so I can follow-“

“No, Scott, you need to be in class on time now. You can’t go skipping anymore,” Stiles said, annoyed. He almost smacked Scott upside the head for being stupid, but didn’t because it wouldn’t have helped.

“Sorry,” Scott said, looking downhearted, “I just wanted to help.”

“Thanks, but your success in school is more important than my backseat right now. Stiles unlocked his jeep and opened the door, ready to get inside.

“Alright then,” Scott said, “See you…tomorrow, then? Since you won’t be at lacrosse?” Scott said and Stiles kind of felt bad for the way he reacted when Scott said he was going to be late to class to find out who had left the warning.

“You can come hang out tonight if you want? Come by after you get out of practice,” Stiles said, and felt better when Scott visibly brightened up. He really was such a puppy the way you could see everything that the boy felt written plainly across his entire body.

The drive to BHCC was completely boring and, with a little law breaking regarding the speedometer, Stiles was able to get to his class with plenty of time to spare. Professor Morrell was sitting at her desk and Stiles was unsure if he should say hi or not so he didn’t and instead sat in the same place that he had yesterday.

He’d remembered his laptop that day and pulled it out and felt incredibly more collegiate with it than with his notebook. He wondered why he didn’t bring his laptop to his other classes in school, and decided that it was because of his lack of fluid grace and inability to master coordination over his body.

Professor Morrell started the class by turning off the lights and turning on a projector. She had a student who was ready to change the slides on her cue in the back of the class and the only other light source was the fifty something laptop screens illuminating the college and high school students’ faces in the darkness.

Stiles glanced around at the eerie setting and thought that it would be a pretty good journal entry if one of the specific writing intervals had been set for that moment. He briefly wondered if he could get away with pretending he was still in the class at seven o’clock at night when, in fact, he would be at home.

“In Ancient Greece, men were just as likely to become a part of mythology as the gods and demigods they worshipped. The word, ‘psychic,’ is derived from the Greek word, ‘psychikos,’ which means of the mind or mental. The mortal girl Psyche in Greek mythology represents the deification of the soul. She accidentally caused Cupid to fall in love with her by startling him so that he scratched himself with his own arrow. Venus cursed her for this to never meet a suitable husband. Her parents consulted an Oracle who said that her beauty was too great for mortal men and to send her to the top of a mountain. Cupid carried her to a valley where she was waited upon by invisible servants and thus the idea that Psychics were people who could use telekinesis to move things with their minds was born,” the rest of the class was spent talking about other mortals who angered or endeared the gods in some way and caused other popular beliefs and superstitions in pop culture. It brought a lot of perspective into Stiles’s life at how things weren’t really new anymore. Everything’s already been done, but you added your own little twist and suddenly, it was new.

His notes were a lot better now that he was on his laptop and he felt very satisfied that he would pass this class with flying colors. Maybe even a letter of recommendation from Professor Morrell. He didn’t want to get his hopes up on the second day of school, but a successful college class and a recommendation would look amazing on his college applications.

He was one of the last to leave the class after packing his bag and creating a folder for his notes on his laptop. As he walked out of the class he almost literally ran into Dr. Deaton from the vet office.

“Stiles,” the vet said, he didn’t sound surprised to see him there, “Been awhile, everything calm down now?” He asked and maybe Scott hadn’t gone back to work yet.

“Yeah everything’s great now. Jackson’s back to normal and pretty in control. We don’t know where Erica or Boyd are and that’s really the only problem. Though we figure they must’ve found a new pack or are looking for a new pack somehow. Has Scott started working yet?” Stiles asked.

“Yeah, he has been for a couple weeks now. I just thought I’d be seeing more of you since the mountain ash. I figured you would’ve been more curious about it, but I’ve been wrong before,” Deaton said, he was as unreadable as ever and Stiles wasn’t sure if that was an invitation to be more curious or a relieved expression of gratitude that he wasn’t more curious.

“I figured it was just the mountain ash that did all the work, I guess,” Stiles said.

“It was pretty much, but there’s a little more to it than that,” Deaton said, crossing his arms and regarding Stiles with a look of interest. Stiles took that pretty much as an open invitation to be more curious about the mountain ash.

“So…what? Imagination is better than werewolf claws?” Stiles asked because he couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to be a smartass.

“In a way, but not everyone has the imagination to do so. Come by the vet office some day and I’ll explain it more in depth to you,” Deaton said and they said their goodbyes to each other. Stiles still had a few hours before Scott would be done with practice, so he figured getting home and getting his homework done was going to be the best option.

His dad was on lunch when he got home and they talked about Stiles’s second day of school. Stiles obnoxiously asked about what cases his dad was working on and his dad reminded him that it was confidential before telling him that they were investigating a series of burglaries around town. He was trying to connect them, but so far they didn’t seem to be related. It was just his instinct telling him that they were related. That, and how there wasn’t a single trace of the burglars except for the missing furniture in each house.

“Wait, furniture?” Stiles asked, “Like TVs, Computers, retail able furniture?” It was an important question, and his father frowned and shook his head.

“No like chairs, couches, beds. Stuff that people should see coming out of a house, but no one has seen anything. Whoever is doing it is able to carry some pretty heavy stuff out and load into a truck before a nosy neighbor can glance out their window. I haven’t figured it out yet,” His dad answered.

Stiles offered no acceptable solutions, though the entire lacrosse team from their rival high school seemed pretty plausible to Stiles, and went up to his bedroom. The first thing Stiles did when he got upstairs was to Google mountain ash. He learned from the nearly blank Wikipedia page that mountain ash was the name used for several trees. That made sense to him. They were more commonly known as rowan, and he wondered why they didn’t just call it rowan ash, though it was clearly not the better name choice for a supernatural dust.

There was another link on the Google search to a town in Wales called Mountain Ash and a bunch of articles about flowers or trees regarding the mountain ash species. He scrolled back up to the search bar and typed in: Mountain ash superstition.

The first result was the Wikipedia page to Werewolf. He’d been to that page before, but didn’t really look for protection against werewolves and was more focused on how to identify a werewolf. There wasn’t anything actually on that page pertaining to mountain ash, but he thought the fact that it was first on the list was helpful nonetheless. The second link was to the Wikipedia page for Rowan trees. Mountain ash was believed to protect against malevolent spirits, which followed with the practical application of a mountain ash ring. There was nothing mentioning werewolves specifically, but a lot mentioning witches, wizards and magic in general.

Rowan was thought to protect a household from witches, but, ironically, it was also most often used as a magician’s or a wizard’s staff or rod. It was also used as a common material for wands and when burnt was a better tool for scrying. It seemed too back-and-forth for anything to come of it, but Stiles had seen enough of it in action to know that it really did work.

He wondered if that was what Deaton was getting at when he mentioned a certain kind of imagination earlier. If werewolves were real, then why couldn’t magic be real as well? There were plenty of mythlore and legends regarding witches and werewolves together. Stiles knew that they didn’t generally go along with each other from when he did all his research on werewolves before.

He decided that another Google search was in order. This time what he entered was: witches and werewolves. It was sure to give promising results. There was folklore where if a witch and a werewolf had a child that it would become a vampire and arguments about whether or not the stated was true or false by people who claimed to be actual werewolves or witches. Stiles questioned their sanity.

Anyways, he figured that there was a good enough correlation between witches and werewolves to talk to Derek about them and see how much the apparently not-so-sourwolf knew. He would be going out there tomorrow for Supernatural so it would be the perfect time to ask him.

He scrolled through a few more pages and learned that there were some cases in which a werewolf was created by a witch, and that the humanity of the werewolf was preserved through their connection. He knew this was false because Scott, Derek, and Isaac all seemed perfectly capable of decent amounts of humanity. Jackson was the loser in this situation because he was just a dick.

He also learned that a witch could sometimes force a werewolf back into its human body and, seeing as how Stiles had never encountered a witch (that he knew of), or seen such a deed performed, he wasn’t able to throw this theory out with the trash just yet.

He bookmarked a few hopeful pages and even went so far as to block a website from being accessed ever again because he was afraid the crazy people who posted on that one might try to find him and convert him into one of their witch cult members. He shut down his computer and started on his homework, hoping that he would be finished with it by the time that Scott got home.

He went to his creative writing journal first and started writing even though his alarm wasn’t going to go off for another hour. He had no intentions of leaving where he was at seven and there was no way that his teacher would know if he was actually in his kitchen or his living room by then anyways, so he started to describe his bedroom.

He was lost in thought and his descriptions when he realized that he nearly wrote down that behind his bedroom door was where Derek once hid from his father. Stiles erased the first half of the sentence to write the truth that wouldn’t incriminate him as a once conspiracy felon and there was, in fact, a dresser behind his bedroom door.

When he finished with that, he blew through the rest of his homework by the time that his alarm went off, and a half hour after that he was in the kitchen making a snack when Scott showed up. Scott was busy telling Stiles about how boring practice was going to be all year without him, and how Finnstock actually asked where he was and got mildly irritated that he wasn’t going to be doing lacrosse that year.

Stiles smiled that Finnstock actually spared a moment of irritation to worry over Stiles’s decision to quit lacrosse that year. He mentioned to Scott that he would be going over to the vet someday soon to talk to Deaton and explained about running into Deaton at BHCC.

“So there’s more to it than just protection?” Scott asked wearing his usual confused expression. Stiles shrugged and picked at the trail mix that he’d pulled from the cupboard.

“I literally have no idea at all. It could pretty much be anything at this point,” he said, “I even went online and Googled mountain ash and it left it so wide open as to what it could or couldn’t do that it just made me more eager to go see him about it.”

“Well, I’m working tomorrow, you can come by then,” Scott offered and Stiles ground his teeth together a little.

“Actually, tomorrow doesn’t work. I kind of already have plans to meet someone,” Stiles started out, avoiding eye contact with Scott and focusing completely on the grains of salt embedded into a pretzel.

“Oh, with who?” Scott asked, and, though it was a perfectly reasonable question, Stiles was upset at how nosy Scott was being.

“With, um, with Derek,” Stiles said, and he thought he heard the imaginary anvil crash into the floor. It was dead silent for a few seconds and one of the most tense and awkward situations Stiles had been in.

“About the claw marks?” Scott asked, and again with the nosy questions, Scott, really?

“Uh, no, we’re going to watch Supernatural together…” Now things were just weird because Scott and Derek never really got along that well and, while Stiles and Derek probably spent more time together than Scott did, it didn’t change the fact that Scott didn’t like him pretty much at all.

“The TV show? You’re going over to Derek’s to watch TV? I’m so lost right now, dude,” Scott said, leaning on his elbows and Stiles worried, because it seemed that the fact that Stiles was going to hang out with Derek just to hang out was too much for his brain to handle.

“I’m just going over there to chill. With ma bro. We’re bros. Derek and I…me and Derek,” Stiles said, trying to ease the process. Scott just rolled his eyes at him. “Look, just do your homework while you work out that Derek doesn’t always have evil mythical creatures to fight and might enjoy some TV with a friend, and I’ll make us something to eat-“

“Please don’t.”

“-like some top ramen or something-“

“Thank you.”

“-and then we can play video games until we both pass out. And don’t think I didn’t hear what you said. Just for that, you get to eat off the ground like a dog.” Scott didn’t laugh even though Stiles thought it was pretty clever of him.

They ate and Scott did his homework, occasionally asking Stiles for help, which was given with much sarcasm and grievance on his part to the annoyance and frustration of Scott’s part. After it was finished, they killed the rest of the night playing video games.

Derek was out in the parking garage working on his Camaro when he was greeted by the sound of footsteps. The girl with short brown hair and military boots smiled at him and he scowled at her.

“No ‘Hello, nice to see you,’ Derek?” The girl asked, she had her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket and he raised the corner of his mouth at her.

“What made you leave New York?” He asked her, “Beacon Hills isn’t much fun compared to the city.”

“Oh, we hear all kinds of rumors, stories. You know how I can’t resist a good story,” She said. She’d reached the Camaro and crossed her ankles, leaning against it on one hip. “Besides, Beacon Hills has a High School we haven’t tried out yet. We can’t miss out on a perfectly good school.”

“Whatever you want, Gabbi, you can take it to another town. I can’t risk you playing games out here where I live,” Derek argued with her. “There are already too many wolves out here. We can’t take many more.”

“Well there aren’t as many of my pack anymore,” She said, “I’m running with some new girls now. These ones are much more my type.”

“What happened to the others?” Derek asked.

“You know the rules, Derek. Blood in,” she smiled and her teeth were longer, “Blood out.” Her eyes flashed red.


	3. Murderers

The murders started on Wednesday. Which was really inconvenient for Stiles because he knew what an animal attack meant in Beacon Hills and Wednesday was the day he was supposed to go to Derek’s to watch Supernatural. Screw you, malignant werewolf activity, you’re ruining everything and it’s only seven-thirty am.

He went downstairs and found out by eavesdropping on his dad on the phone.

“Yeah? How many dead again?” His dad said, “Well, where’s the wife?” His dad sighed, “Where did they find the body? Hank, that doesn’t make sense…Well did they keep a pet wolf upstairs or something? … Hank. I really doubt that. Alright….alright…I’ll be there in an hour I have to go. My son is listening in on this conversation.”

Stiles ran, not very quietly, back upstairs and pretended that he was just coming downstairs after his dad got into the kitchen shaking his head and laughing.

“What’s so funny, Dad?” Stiles asked, knowing that his attempts at espionage had been a failure.

“Nothing, Stiles,” the sheriff responded, “Well, I’ve got to go to work. Don’t go sticking your nose into anything that you shouldn’t,” he said pointing at Stiles forcefully for effect.

“C’mon, Dad, when have I ever done that?” Stiles replied receiving a dead glare from his father who shook his head again and left with a wave and an ‘I love you’ as he walked out. Stiles pulled out his phone instantly and went to text Scott before deciding that Scott couldn’t know yet and changing the contact information to Derek’s instead.

Someone killed, animal attack, probably wolf, wife missing. Dad says doesn’t make sense.

It was a few minutes before he got a response from Derek and it wasn’t helpful at all.

I know. I’m taking care of it. Go to school.

Dammit. Stiles was thinking maybe he and Derek could go to the crime scene later, Derek could sniff around while Stiles made intelligent and logical conclusions about whatever Derek discovered, but no. He would have to go to school, probably tell Scott about what happened and hopefully without Scott noticing that he texted Derek without texting him.

He got into his jeep, but as he was about to pull out he realized that he wasn’t alone. Lounging in the backseat, legs crossed and leaning forward with a lazy look on her face, was the Asian. Lana? That was her name, right?

“Um, can I help you?” Stiles asked, confused as to why she was there. They hadn’t said a single thing to each other. He just knew that Gabbi and Luna knew her.

“You can’t help,” Lana responded, “I’m just here to deliver information.” She rolled her eyes then, at herself? Okay. “Tell Derek that his town is boring. We only found one man here, so we’re changing the rules a little bit.”

“What are you talking about?” Stiles asked, thoroughly confused now.

Lana rolled her eyes again, she was better than Lydia at rolling her eyes, and said, “You’ll find out soon enough. Just tell him instead of hunting, we’re turning this into recruitment.”

“What do you mean you’re recruiting? Who are you?” Stiles asked and as her eyes flashed blue he whirled around in his seat and she was gone. As he turned back towards the front he saw her standing there, eyes electric blue and she smiled, her teeth were elongated and it was definitely the creepiest grin that Stiles had ever seen.

She lifted a clawed hand and pointedly dragged a long scratch across the front of his hood before Stiles blinked and she was gone again. Aggravated and annoyed Stiles drove to school.

He pulled out his phone to text Derek again and was pressing the send button before he realized that Scott hadn’t come to meet him. He could see his mom’s car in the parking lot, but quickly pushed it to the back of his mind when he got another text from Derek saying that he was taking care of it, but that he would explain further that night.

So Stiles went to first period where Scott wasn’t saving a seat for him and he had to sit three rows over from his best friend. He sat through the whole class tapping his foot in anticipation of telling Scott everything from that morning, but when the bell rang, Scott was out of the class faster than Stiles could even say his name, undoubtedly using his werewolf speed to get away from him for whatever reason. The cheater.

Trig had Lydia, though, who was at least someone that he could talk to now that they had kind of connected and she finally knew about all the supernatural crap that went down around her.

“What do you know about the new girls?” Stiles asked Lydia as he sat next to her in the front of the class again.

“That none of them are your type at all, Stiles,” she responded, “Don’t worry, though, we’ll find someone for you to make up for me stringing you along like that for ten years.”

“What? That’s, uh, not what I was talking about I meant like do you know anything about them?” Stiles asked again, “Like their family life or where they’re from or anything at all really because I’m starting to get this weird feeling that maybe they’re probably werewolves based on the fact that Lana clawed the hood of my jeep right in front of me.”

“You can always tell when you’re upset, Stiles, because you talk a lot more than you need to,” was what Lydia said in return to his rushed whispering. “I don’t know anything about the new girls. None of them posed any threat to me, but now that I know what kind of a threat they really pose I can guarantee you that I will find out.”

Stiles sighed then because Lydia was clearly the most helpful person so far that day. Besides, he only knew that Lana was a werewolf for sure he couldn’t exactly prove that Gabbi and Luna were as well just because they talked about her. Maybe they knew each other because they were all transfer students. And Lana just happened to be a werewolf. That made sense, right?

In Creative Writing Stiles received his first A on his turned in work towards his manuscript, however his notes on The Great Gatsby and his analysis on the first chapter still got a B. Gabbi was there and glancing over he saw that she maintained a perfect streak of A grades on her work and for some reason it irritated him because alleged werewolves weren’t allowed to allegedly be super-fast and super-strong and also super-smart. It wasn’t fair to the people without special powers.

And then in History, either out of the stacked up irritation of the day or from irritation at Allison herself, Stiles finally approached her in class. She had half-waved and smiled previously so the obvious next step was rekindling contact, right?

“Hey, Allison, how’s it going?” Stiles asked her, smiling and leaning forward on her desk. She put on a smile for him and said that everything was great. She had a good, normal summer with minimal weirdness. That was good.

“How was your summer, Stiles?” She asked and he was kind of relieved that she hadn’t ended the conversation yet or just ignored him. His summer was good and normal too, so was school so far, well, except for the part where crazy new werewolves kept trying to break his jeep. “Wait, what?” Oh, yeah, he guessed he didn’t tell her that, probably because someone was avoiding her friends. She turned her head and blushed.

He explained how he first found the back seat of his car torn to shreds and then about the murder he’d heard his dad talking about that morning.

“Murder? What? Who died?” Allison interjected, “If there was a wolf attack my dad would have heard of it by now.”

“Your dad doesn’t know? Weird you’d think he’d get a little more creepy on the wolf stalking front to make sure we didn’t make any more kanima’s or something,” Stiles said, “But, yeah, Derek said he was taking care of it, but then my jeep was assaulted by one of the new girls here so he’s not doing a very good job so far.”

“I am so tired of all these people getting killed. Is there ever going to be a time when we can just sit back and pretend that werewolves aren’t real? All I want is to get through High School without worrying about someone else in my family dying.” She sighed and placed her head in her hands as she took a deep breath. She looked up again and said, “So what do we do?” Allison fixed a severe stare on Stiles and for the first time he felt the weight of pressure the supernatural had put on Allison personally.

He had been having a hard time with it because he was trying to protect everyone and especially his father. Allison had been trying to do the same thing, but she lost two members of her family to the werewolves who had attacked Beacon Hills.

He couldn’t imagine how that would feel, knowing that the people who were responsible for both her aunt and her mother’s deaths were still alive and that her boyfriend was one of them.

“I was kind of hoping that you would know something about it since your dad, but I’m not really sure where we go from here. Derek said he was taking care of it, like I said, but who knows. He’s not exactly a professional werewolf problem solver,” Stiles replied.

“I’ll talk to my dad and let him know what’s going on, chances are he knows by now hopefully, it’s been awhile since the murder,” Allison said right before class started and they didn’t get another chance to talk that class, but before they left Allison told Stiles to tell Scott that she said hello. He saw a future for himself as a message runner again and groaned as he went to find Scott for lunch.

Neither Scott nor Isaac were anywhere to be found for the first half of lunch and finally Stiles decided to text him Allison’s message because sorry, Scott, but you are not more important than food when Stiles is hungry.

Scott was at his side within minutes of Stiles sending the text, and Stiles wasn’t really surprised though because Scott was kind of crazy about Allison and always would be crazy about Allison.

“What did she say about me?” Scott asked, insistently as Isaac strolled up a few seconds later, sitting across from them.

“Nothing we just talked about the werewolf stuff that’s going on and stuff,” Stiles said, “You know our favorite choice of conversation is always murder, madness and mayhem.”

“Wait murder?” Scott asked, puzzled, he really was a sad little puppy sometimes.

“Yeah, murder, because someone wasn’t saving a seat for me in first period so he missed out on all the fun stuff that has been happening recently. You get one guess to figure out who that person is, and if you’re wrong then you’ve been voted off the island,” Stiles said just a little bitterly.

“Sorry,” Scott said, looking towards the ground, “I was kind of avoiding you,” he shuffled a little and Stiles just kind of stared at him not really sure how to respond. Scott was his best friend, is his best friend. They were always there for each other, told each other everything.

“Why what’s going on?” Stiles asked him. This wasn’t like Scott at all usually he was very stubborn and forward with people when there was something wrong. Allison, for example.

“I don’t know, Stiles, I just,” Scott started, he glanced over to Isaac who was nodding at him. Oh, so he was telling Isaac things now? “I feel like you’re kind of leaving me behind and it just, it doesn’t feel good.”

“Scott, what the hell are you talking about?” Stiles wasn’t going anywhere. Not without Scott. They’d always been attached at the hip and that wasn’t changing as long as Stiles was alive.

“Well like, we only have one class this year and you’re in all advanced classes while I’m in all remedial classes,” Scott stared and before Stiles could put in his argument that Scott could be in all advanced classes too if he’d just do his homework and focus less on lacrosse and Allison and werewolves,

“And you’re not doing lacrosse anymore now that you’ve finally got a chance at first line,” and before Stiles could remind Scott that he had his classes to worry about and didn’t really have time for lacrosse anymore, Scott interrupted again, “And now you’re hanging out with Derek tonight and not me and I know I work, but like you didn’t even tell me and it sounded like you didn’t want to tell me.”

Okay that part wasn’t really his business, but Stiles gave it to him anyways because they usually did tell each other when they had plans for things that were kind of out of the ordinary and just chilling with Derek was way out of the ordinary.

He could see why Scott felt that way, though. Last year they had classes, lacrosse, everything together. Even though he kind of felt pushed to the background when Allison showed up, they still talked and hung out but now they didn’t have as much time to spend with each other.

“Dude, if you think about it we sound like a couple,” Stiles said to Scott and he held a blank face for a few seconds before busting up with laughter.

“We totally do, don’t we,” Scott said, still laughing. So Stiles told Scott, and Isaac since Isaac was there it didn’t really matter, about the murder and how it was probably a wolf and about the new girl, Lana, being a werewolf. He didn’t say anything about Gabbi or Luna maybe being wolves, too, because he didn’t have any proof they might still just know each other because they were all transfer students. Who knew? Anyways, Scott said that he’d try and scent out any other wolves who could be in school, and Isaac said he’d do the same.

They finished their lunch then and Stiles and Scott talked about when Stiles was going to go with Scott to work to talk to Deaton about whatever he was talking about before.

Stiles went to Study Hall, and he noticed that Gabbi and Luna were not there. He focused on his homework and got most of it done.

When he arrived at BHCC that day he found the class empty except for Professor Morrell and Dr. Deaton who both looked up when Stiles walked in.

“Is class canceled?” Stiles asked, more than hopeful, but he was disappointed when Morrell said no.

“Class isn’t canceled, you’ll just be the only student today,” she said to him. “Come in, Stiles.”

“Is this about the freaky mountain ash stuff you were talking about the other day?” Stiles asked.

“Yes, Stiles, this is about that,” Deaton replied, “But we like to call it something other than freaky mountain ash stuff.”

“What do you call it then? Magic?” Stiles joked, laughing as he walked over to them. He stopped laughing when he noticed that neither of them were laughing either. “Whoa, really? Magic is real?”

“You question the existence of magic when you’re friends with werewolves and the kanima?” Deaton asked him and when he put it that way then yeah it was kind of stupid to get excited about something that obvious.

“Okay, fine, but can I ask one more question?” Stiles paused, waiting for a ‘no’ or a ‘stop talking’ “How does Ms. Morrell know about this stuff?”

“Professor Morrell has always known, longer than you have, Stiles,” Deaton said, “She’s a witch, like me…like you will be.” Stiles was flabbergasted and…yeah flabbergasted was the only way to accurately describe how Stiles was feeling. Magic? That was so cool. Stiles could be a witch? Awesome.

“You’ve already demonstrated that you have a talent for it,” Professor Morrell said, “And we know you’ve felt useless when things get rough so we’re willing to help you learn.”

“Yeah? Awesome. How do we start?” Stiles asked ignoring the comment about how he was feeling useless because, though it was true, he wasn’t one to let others see his pain very much. No one except Scott.

“You will come to the vet clinic to be trained by me when you’re supposed to be here. Professor Morrell will pass you in her class as long as you hold true to your commitment. Magic isn’t a come-as-you-please subject.”

“So do we start today? Like, are you gonna teach me something cool to play with or…” He trailed off raising his eyebrows and looking at both of them. Morrell gestured to Deaton who had looked at her.

“Alright I’ll teach you something to ‘play with’ as you put it,” Deaton said, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a crystal, turning it over in his hand. “Magic cannot be performed without an anchor, one of the elements. Earth, fire, water…air is tricky, but can be done. The more pure your element the more precise your magic will be, but as long as you have your anchor then you can draw magic from the universe.”

Alright so far Stiles was following along pretty decently. Grab a rock, do magic. Simple enough.

“Remember what I said, you have to believe it. You need to feel your connection to your anchor and then believe in the magic you are performing. Most of it is mental, but speaking your desires makes less room for error, it makes you focus more on what you want.”

Okay. Stiles understood. Kind of.

“Just show him how to do something fun, Alan,” Morrell said, “You’re boring me with the theory and I know how to do it.”

“Alright,” Deaton said, “Here, take this. Crystal is a strong anchor, diamond is better, but-“

“Fun, Alan,” Morrell said. God bless Professor Morrell.

“Focus on your anchor, Stiles and picture it glowing,” Deaton said, “Imagine it filled with bright light, now believe that it is filled with that light.”

Stiles followed along with his thoughts, concentrating on the crystal. Imagination is more important than knowledge, he thought to himself. He made himself feel the way he’d felt at the rave. Determined to make it work. The crystal was glowing in his head, a bright, burning white light and then a moment later it flickered. Stiles smiled as the crystal cast the room in a bright luminescence.

Magic was definitely cooler than werewolves.

Deaton and Morrell gave him a book to read and he made joke about how it was ‘Magic for Dummies’, to which he received dead stares from both of them. They were clearly unaware of the comic genius that was Stiles.

Stiles also got to keep his crystal and Morrell told him to play with it. The crystal could act as an anchor for all magic that he wanted to try.

“Just don’t try anything major without talking to one of us so we can make sure you won’t kill anyone,” Deaton warned and Morrell rolled her eyes.

Stiles pretty much ran out to his jeep, antsy and excited. He still had awhile before he had to be at Derek’s and he wanted to go home and play with his new toys.

Magic toys.

He was totally going to rub this in Scott’s face later.

Derek was in the woods. He knew that Stiles would be over soon to watch Supernatural, but he needed to talk to Gabbi. He was done with murder almost getting him and his pack killed over and over again.

“Gabbi, I can feel you nearby,” Derek said, aloud and he turned around as he heard the crunch of feet.

“How’s it hangin’, Derek?” Gabbi said with a smile. Two unfamiliar faces were on either side of her. A young-faced girl with curly brown hair and an Asian girl who looked like she’d rather be doing anything else.

“Why did you come here?” Derek asked her.

“There were some pretty nasty rumors going around, Derek,” Gabbi said, “They said the Hale pack was dead and here you are, making a new one. And everyone knows about the Kanima, Derek, I was just curious,” She kept smiling at him, “Can’t blame a girl for being curious can you?”

“Then why are you killing people?”

“You know why, Derek,” Gabbi replied, her smile falling, “He didn’t deserve to live.”

“There are hunters here, Gabbi. The Argents live here,” Derek said, “If you kill people, it looks like my pack did it.”

“Boohoo, The Argents don’t scare me. I outsmarted them in New York I can do it again no problem,” Gabbi said, “I already talked to their daughter, Allison.”

Gabbi had almost told Derek nothing so far. So there were rumors, of course there were rumors. A kanima doesn’t go unnoticed by people who know what to look for.

“You’re boring me, Derek, and you know how I don’t like to be bored,” Gabbi said then, “We’ll see you around.”

So that’s why she was here.

She was bored.

Stiles pulled in to Derek’s apartment building and let himself in like his most recent text from Derek told him to. He had his crystal in his pocket and his magic book in his backpack. He’d finished his homework before he left and had played around with the crystal. He discovered that he could change the shape of the crystal easily and that he could summon things to and from him easily, which was a lot of fun. He might have had a Mathilda moment where he made things fly around his room and then land exactly where they needed to be. Cleaning his room was going to be so much easier now.

They ate dinner, hamburgers, before the show started. Stiles was once again blown away by the fact that Derek could not only cook, but was also excellent at it. Hallelujah. He was once more blown away by Derek’s smile over dinner and discovered that his laugh was pleasant as well.

He was kind of confused by these attractions though because he’d never really felt that way before. Sure, he’d noticed that Jackson, while being a raging douchebag, was incredibly handsome and maybe he ached to run his fingers down Danny’s chest, but he’d always kind of assumed that was just normal.

These were things he’d normally notice with Lydia, which was weird because he hadn’t noticed these things about anyone besides Lydia.

It was uncomfortable at first with these newfound attractions, and he wasn’t sure if they meant he was gay or just bi or just like a really cool bro who was super comfortable with his sexuality. It could be anything.

Supernatural was amazing, and Derek was more right than Stiles was about how Dean was going to get out. He did appear just in the middle of nowhere with no real explanation of how he got out except by the fact that a vampire helped him.

Stiles was suspect of Benny, he got sent to Purgatory for a reason. Who knew? He was highly disappointed that Cas didn’t get out and was heartbroken to hear that Cas was dead.

“Stiles, calm down, it’s just a TV show,” Derek had said when Stiles had cried out in protest. “Cas has been dead before anyways.”

“You’re not making any sense, Derek, how is this just a TV show? It’s a lifestyle!” Stiles argued. And though he did have a point, Cas had been dead several times and it never seemed to keep him away for long. Poor, fallen angel.

Stiles may have cringed at some of the gore, but that was the usual for him, even after the crap he’d been put through it didn’t mean he could get used to stuff like that.

On a bright note, Kevin Tran was back this season. Stiles liked Kevin. He was just kind of endearing and forced you to like him. Sucks that his girlfriend was killed though.

“That was amazing!” Stiles said as the episode ended. Derek snorted and Stiles responded by turning sharply and asking, “You didn’t think so?”

“No, it was good, but you get way too into it,” Derek replied, “It’s entertaining, but it’s not meant to be that serious,” Derek chuckled and Stiles glared at him.

“You shut your mouth you’re just gloating because you were right about Dean,” Stiles replied, “Anyways now that the main event is over we need to talk.”

“Are you breaking up with me?” Derek snorted.

“What? No, shut up, I meant about the werewolves,” Stiles said ignoring Derek’s lame joke. Lame. Freak. “What’s going on?”

Derek frowned at him and then sighed, “They’re a justice pack,” Derek said.

“A justice pack? What? Like Batman?”

“That’s not really an official term, but it’s the easiest way to describe them. Their alpha is a woman named Gabbi, she’s older than you think she is. She only turns women for her pack and they kill men who abuse their spouses,” Derek explained.

“So the man that was murdered…” Stiles began, putting it together. So Gabbi and Luna were werewolves, then. And Gabbi was an alpha. Okay.

“Abused his wife and in the eyes of Gabbi and her pack that’s a cause for death,” Derek said.

“Wow, super feminist werewolves that’s scary,” Stiles said, “But, wait, one of them said that they were only recruiting now so what does that mean?”

“I don’t know, they’re looking for girls to join their pack,” Derek said, “But they’re not safe either. Gabbi kills the girls who try to leave her pack. When I was in New York she ran with a larger group of girls and neither of them were the two she’s with now.”

“So what do we do?” Stiles asked, all they needed to do was figure out a way to get Gabbi out of town. So, like, maybe sending some flowers with a card saying please stop killing would work?

“All we can do is hope they don’t kill anyone and try to get them to leave, Gabbi is smart,” Derek said, “She outsmarted the Argents in New York.”

“Well, Scott outsmarted the Argents it’s not really a feat.”

“She outsmarted, Kate.”

“Oh.” Wow.

“She learned that the Argents were following me and offered to help. She pretended she was going to recruit Kate and let Kate think she had the upper hand. She worked around every plan that Kate made, and when they tried to ambush her pack, she and the girls were ready for them. Only Kate got out alive and she didn’t go back.”

It was probably the most frightening story that Stiles had ever heard. Kate wasn’t even scared away when Peter was the alpha. She burned down a house full of kids and humans because of a few werewolves.

“So we can’t outsmart her?” Stiles fingered the crystal in his pocket, wondering if he should tell Derek. He didn’t see why not.

“She knows all of our tricks, Stiles. We don’t even have a kanima and that’s probably what brought her down here. She doesn’t like to be bored.” Stiles kind of had the urge to lean over and cuddle into Derek while they talked. It was toasty in the apartment, comfortably so and the TV was off. They were just sitting there talking and it might have been about murder, but it was a nice feeling. Stiles refused to give in to the urge of course because he was more sensible than that and also he didn’t want his throat cut open.

“Well…she doesn’t know all of our tricks because I just learned this one today.” Stiles told Derek about the magic that Deaton showed him and Derek admitted that he knew magic was possible, but that he hadn’t seen it practiced since he was a kid and Deaton helped out his family.

“Why didn’t you ask Deaton to help sooner? It would have so much more useful!” Stiles argued with Derek. Sometimes he could be so dense.

“I did, but he was retired and then he taught you about mountain ash.” Derek explained, maybe he wasn’t that dense then, “He lost a lot of friends through Kate and had been retired since then. He’s willing to teach you though and that’s good. You won’t be such a sitting duck if Gabbi tries to attack you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Derek,” Stiles replied and threw a pillow at him.


	4. Sexuality

Stiles took a deep breath and squeezed the crystal in his hand tighter. He focused on the crystal and imagined it giving him light, before asking aloud, “Am I gay?” The crystal shed no light on the matter and Stiles nearly threw it across the room.

He quickly picked up his cell phone and called Scott, determined to figure out what he had to say about all of this. Scott answered for once, probably because Allison wasn't talking to him right now, and Stiles told him that he needed to ask him something really important and that he needed to come over right away.

Scott said he’d be there in a few minutes.

The last few days of that week since he’d hung out with Derek had been uneventful. He hadn’t seen or spoken or texted or communicated at all with Derek since they’d watched the premiere of Supernatural and he had been sure to not check his phone every few minutes for a text or a missed call from him. Very sure that did not happen at all.

He had looked at his yearbooks in which he’d bookmarked every page that Lydia was in, but it wasn’t creepy or anything because he also bookmarked every page that he and Scott were on. The only difference that up until last year’s yearbook he and Scott were on a collective total of twelve pages not including their class photos. Lydia was on a hundred and seventeen in just their freshman book. Last year Scott made it onto thirty-seven pages after becoming lacrosse co-captain.

What had changed between now and then, though, that cause Stiles to realize that he had attractions for guys as well? He found one of his favorite pictures of Lydia where she was standing in a floral skirt with a tight fitting tube top, she had on heeled boots and was dripping in accessories. He hand on one hip she stared down the camera man with a smirk that reminded the world that Lydia Martin was better than them. It contained Lydia’s essence and everything in that one little picture.

It was then that Stiles realized what had changed. He’d gotten over Lydia. Now that he no longer pined after her he was open to seeing things he liked in other people. He’d always been attracted to guys as well, but he had always been too distracted by Lydia to notice.

There was a rap on his bedroom door and Scott walked in, Stiles tossed the yearbook on the floor to the side. Scott barely followed the toss with his eyes as he sat down in Stiles’s desk chair.

“What’s up?” He asked, kicking off his shoes. Stiles turned and shoved his hands in his pockets, running a finger over the sharp edges of the crystal nervously.

“I have to ask you to do something kind of really important for me,” Stiles said, “And it’s really weird and you’ll probably not ever talk to me again, but I was thinking because we’re bros that you’d just do this one little itty bitty favor for me, maybe?” Scott regarded him with an unsure look that told Stiles he was about to be skating on thin ice. So Stiles explained that while he was at Derek’s house he had been having some mixed feelings about Derek and Scott still looked as though Stiles were a psychopath.

“So what do you want me to do…exactly?” Scott asked, slowly, “Hook you up with Derek? Because I’m not sure that I’m entirely cool with doing that.”

“No, you idiot, Derek is pretty much as much out of my league as Lydia was…or is, whatever. No, anyways, I just need to be sure like…one hundred percent sure,” Stiles started and then started again, slowly, “Will you kiss me?”

“No,” Scott said, standing up, “Dude that is really fucking weird, I know I’m not gay.”

“Look it doesn’t have to have tongue or anything it’s just a quick little kiss, dude, I’m kind of distressing about this right now and there’s literally no one else who I can ask about this, please, I’m begging you,” Stiles said, also standing now and Scott, for whatever reason, didn’t say anything he just tapped his foot kind of nervously and crossed his arms.

At least he hadn’t run out yet. Stiles just looked at him and he did have the appearance of a person who was really desperate and needed help and Scott was really a compassionate guy.

“If anyone ever finds out about this I will not hesitate an instant in killing you,” Scott said as he unfolded his arms. Stiles breathed out a sigh of relief and sat down on his bed. Scott crept over and sat down tentatively next to Stiles. There was a tense and extremely awkward few minutes where neither one of them did anything and they didn’t even look at each other. “Are you sure you don’t want to just ask Danny or something I mean we can go back to that club-“

“No, dude, I can’t do that because what if I’m wrong and people see me then what,” Stiles answered quickly, blushing, “Okay let’s just get this over with I don’t think either one of us wants to do this at all really.” So Scott closed his eyes and very, excruciatingly slowly leaned towards Stiles who pointedly didn’t close his eyes and leaned in quickly. Their lips met briefly before they both pulled away a second later, red in the face.

“So…what’s the verdict?” Scott asked, coughing as he talked.

“It was like kissing my grandmother,” Stiles replied, “Ok you need to pretend I’m Allison.”

“What? No, Stiles, I can’t do that,” Scott argued again, “Kissing you once was bad enough.”

“Dude that wasn’t even a kiss straight boys in France say hello like that you need to really kiss me and I don’t have any experience with what that’s like so this is all you now,” Stiles debated. Scott sighed and closed his eyes again, Stiles did too.

This time when their lips met they maintained contact and Scott spread his lips a little, pushing against Stiles’s. Stiles reacted by opening his as well and molded his mouth to Scott’s. A warm feeling spread in Stiles’s stomach and lower gut and he was almost tempted to slide his tongue between Scott’s teeth when Scott pulled away. Almost five minutes had passed.

“Wow, dude, that was really nice wanna do it again?” Stiles asked before receiving a very hard, although completely understandable, smack to the back of his head.

“So you’re gay then?” Scott asked, blushing and wiping his mouth and Stiles, “Because I don’t care as long as you don’t try to kiss me again ever.”

Stiles flopped backwards onto his bed and sighed, “Yeah I think I am,” he said dully. “Aren’t I supposed to be like freaking out over this or something?” He asked and Scott shrugged. “Yeah you’ve never done this before either.”

“At least I don’t have to hear about Lydia anymore,” Scott said, laughing and Stiles reminded him that he had no room to talk because he never shut up about Allison.

They spent the next few hours talking and doing homework together. Scott let Stiles write about him in his settings journal. As long as it wasn’t in a weird, lusting after his best friend way.

After Scott left his dad got home and Stiles almost forgot to tell him that he’d figured out he was gay so while they were eating dinner Stiles brought up the time that they were at the club with Danny and his father remembered. Stiles reminded him how he said he could be gay, well, it was definitely a one-hundred percent for sure thing now.

You’re gay?

Yeah. Yup. Stiles was gay. His dad didn’t care either. Muttered something about how he would have about as much luck getting a boyfriend as did at getting a girlfriend if he kept up this habit of serving rabbit food for dinner. Stiles might have made a remark that he might get rat poison for dessert if his father didn’t shut up.

The next week at school was very tense and strange for Stiles being that every time he had any kind of interaction with a boy he would pretty much treat it the same way he had when it had been Lydia. She noticed right away, however, and brought it up in trig.

“You know Danny’s still available right?” She whispered to him while they were supposed to be working on their current assignment. Their desks had been pushed together, but were still supposed to be working silently anyways.

“W-what?” Stiles stuttered, unusually speechless. Yes he had noted that Danny was still available and yes he noticed that no one seemed to care that Danny was gay really, but that was Danny he was bigger and stronger than Stiles was.

“I know you’re not really his usual type, but I’m sure he could be persuaded somehow,” Lydia went on as if she hadn’t pretty much outed him at all.

“Please, Stiles, you’re not as secretive as you think you are. You have this slight social awkwardness that doesn’t allow you to talk to anyone who you find attractive and I noticed that you couldn’t really help when Danny asked for the history homework,” Lydia explained as she quickly penciled in the answer to the last question in the assignment. She smiled at him as she flipped the book shut and turned the assignment in at the front of the class. Lydia promptly sat back down in her seat and fixed him with her most dubious and knowing grin before typing something rapidly on her cellphone.

Stiles hurriedly finished his assignment while she sat across from him typing away and he definitely did not glance up every few moments while processing the strange foreign language that was math worried that she would still be smiling that grin filled with good, but was surely evil, intentions.

After Stiles turned in his assignment he sat back down and closed his trig book. Lydia murmured a soft, “Finally,” under her breath and Stiles rolled his eyes. Not everyone was a math prodigy, Lydia, calm down. “So, I’ve talked to Danny,” she whispered to him.

Stiles promptly smacked his forehead to his desk getting glares from the few still working and their teacher as well. He made an apologetic face in the general direction of everywhere and mouthed his apology to the teacher.

“He did say that he was wondering why you’d been asking weird questions, but also said he’d text you after lacrosse practice,” Lydia continued after rolling her eyes at him.

“Weird ques-look it was a perfectly legitimate concern, okay, I just wanted to know if gay guys found me attractive!” Stiles explained, but then jerked back a little. Oh, so he definitely didn’t realize how extraordinarily gay that must’ve sounded. Lydia just regarded him with what Stiles could only describe as a puckered look of pity. Puckered referring to the way she pursed her lips slightly so they pushed out just a bit more. “Anyways, I don’t really want to date Danny.”

“Of course you do. Danny is gorgeous,” Lydia batted her hand at him, “But it’s okay, I’ll come over and help you text him tonight it’ll be no problem.” So when class ended he still had not convinced Lydia that no, it wasn’t Danny he was interested in and no, he didn’t need her help texting a guy he wasn’t interested in and he was about to tell her exactly who had prompted the sexuality awakening in him, but didn’t get to beat the bell.

The rest of the day flew by and he didn’t get much of a chance to talk to Scott until after school before lacrosse practice. Scott thought he should go for it, but that wasn’t what Stiles was trying to tell him. He didn’t want to date Danny didn’t anyone listen to him at all?

“Lydia’ll be better at this stuff than me, dude, just go talk to her alright? You’re still my best friend, but I don’t really know what to tell you about dude romance.” Scott should never talk ever, Stiles decided. He sighed and resigned himself to going home.

He’d been pleased to discover that the same trick that had worked with the mountain ash also worked with his gas tank as long as he never looked at it. To prevent this from happening Stiles duct taped over his fuel gauge and believed that his tank was full all the way home.

Once home he pretty much just had to waste time until whenever Lydia decided she wanted to show up. He kicked off his shoes in the living room and trudged up to him room. With the click of a remote button his radio kicked on and he threw himself onto his bed for a few minutes before getting up to change his clothes.

He lay back on his bed and flipped through his contacts sending out a few random texts to Scott, Isaac, Lydia. His phone landed on Derek’s name and he sent him a text asking if he’d caught the new Supernatural.

No, but it was recorded he was going to watch it later that week.

Stiles made a joke that Allison would like the new show Arrow.

Derek replied that Stiles probably wouldn’t laugh if he’d been on the receiving end of one of Allison’s shots.

Sorry.

Derek didn’t really care he was just teasing.

Asshole.

A total of seven texts exchanged and already an hour had passed and there was his doorbell calling him back downstairs.

Lydia ushered herself in carrying shopping bags and Stiles seriously hoped that he wasn’t getting a makeover, but no. That’s exactly what this was. Being gay was quickly becoming the worst thing that had ever happened to Stiles and that included nearly being eaten by his best friend.

"Lydia, you don't need to do that, really like, at all," Stiles tried to reason, but Lydia wasn't someone that you reasoned with. At all.

The bags were full of designer clothing and Stiles complained that Danny didn't wear designer clothes, to which Lydia rolled her eyes and smirked. If Stiles couldn't identify designer clothes without the tags then there was a serious issue at hand.

"You bought me a TV, Stiles. I'm only returning the favor," Lydia said as she handed him an outfit.

"Is that why you're doing this? Because I don't really care, you know, I returned all that stuff," Stiles argued as he solemnly accepted the offered outfit and turned go into his bathroom and change. The outfit didn't even look like him at all really, and Stiles couldn't tell you who designed the jeans versus the shirt anyways.

She had given him a pinstriped V-neck that fit him too well and a pair of jeans that were pretty much identical to other pairs of jeans he'd seen, except these were feathered on the thighs. He also had a pea coat, but the belt was enormous and difficult and he didn't want to argue with it. And by argue with it, he meant that he didn't want Lydia to tut at him if he did it wrong.

She tutted at him anyways and tugged on the shirt in a few places, adjusting the wrinkles.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," Lydia said, not in resigned defeat, but with enthusiasm. She pointedly handed him a second outfit and began rifling through her bags for a third.

"How much did you spend?" Stiles asked then as he fully realized the number of things she'd purchased covered all of his bed and part of his desk.

"Not a penny more than you spent for my birthday," Lydia answered without any hint that that might be a problem because the original amount that Stiles spent on Lydia's birthday was ridiculous thinking back, and the fact that she could spend that much on clothes without buying out an entire store was just as ridiculous in perspective.

He sighed, frustrated and returned to change his clothes again. This was not in his wildest dreams how having Lydia over was supposed to go, ignoring the recent sexual discovery. In his mind it usually featured heavy cuddling with the occasional heavy petting session.

Thinking about that made him think about Derek and how he'd definitely seen Derek without his shirt on before on a few occasions and that got Stiles into thinking about running his fingers down his chest and stomach.

A very red Stiles returned a few minutes later with very tight pair of pants on. He handed over his old outfit and prayed to every god there ever was or could be that this did not turn into the most embarrassing moment of his life.

Lydia didn't take notice, however, of his unfortunate situation, or if she did she didn't say anything or smirk at all, and merely poked and prodded.

Seven or eight outfits later Stiles came out looking a little like he usually looked. He was wearing a black button-down, unbuttoned, over a silvery V-neck that he was pretty sure was made of water, and a pair of black straight-leg jeans. His sleeves were rolled up to just above his elbows and Stiles ran a hand over his head as he stood in front of Lydia for inspection.

"Perfect," Lydia said as she came over and buttoned his shirt starting with the third button down so that the gray t-shirt was barely exposed.

The rest of the night was Lydia correcting Stiles’ math homework and coaching Stiles through text-flirting. When Danny did finally text, he had to hand over his phone to Lydia so that she could decipher everything.

"What do I do if he does actually take interest since I don't actually want to date him," Stiles tried to argue again while Lydia tapped out another message to Danny about an hour later.

"Oh, he's definitely taken interest, Stiles," Lydia said, "In fact you guys are going to get coffee tomorrow before school. "

"What did you just say?" Stiles asked in a deadpan.

"You're getting coffee with Danny tomorrow morning."

"Lydia I don't want to date him he and I are all wrong for each other he's tall and I'm not and he's fit and in shape and I guess I'm kind of in shape from running for my life, but he's smarter than me and prettier and I-"

"Stiles, calm down, you're better than you think you are," Lydia said finally listening to Stiles for the first time since she'd showed up hours ago. "Look, you're unbelievably caring and you've got this weirdly charming way of talking that should be annoying, but it's not. Those are both qualities Danny likes about you."

"Wait he said that?" Stiles asked.

"Maybe."

"Give me my phone right now," Stiles said lunging for it causing Lydia to cry out gleefully and hold it away from him. He grabbed it from her hand and started reading the texts and, though Lydia was able to match his texting style perfect, he felt weird knowing they were not words he'd spoken. It felt wrong, like he was betraying Danny. And anyways he definitely did not want to date Danny, but no one was listening.

"What are you saying?" Lydia asked as Stiles tapped out a message on his phone.

"I'm explaining what you did," Stiles said.

"Stilinski, don't you dare."

"I feel wrong having you talk for me," Stiles said, he hadn't sent the message yet. Mostly because it was going to take three or for texts to explain everything.

"Look the least you can do is get coffee with him tomorrow. He's been feeling down still since his boyfriend broke up with him, didn't you read that far? This would at least cheer him up." Stiles did read that and Lydia had portrayed him as caring, but flirty, or at least he assumed he was being flirty by the occasional smiley faces after encouraging words. "If you still don't think you'd be a good couple after that then you don't have to go out again, but if he asks you out you have to at least consider it before saying no. What do you have to lose?"

Nothing. He didn't have a shot in hell with Derek, who he was about a hundred and ten percent sure was heterosexual anyways, so he couldn't let himself get sucked into obsessing over someone who wasn't interested in him again. Especially since now that someone would never return the feelings for him that he felt for them.

The next morning was nice, though, he wasn't nervous at all as he pulled into Starbucks and walked inside. He was five minutes early, but so was Danny who was already in line when Stiles got there. They got their coffees and talked for a few minutes about lacrosse and why Stiles stopped. Danny agreed that it was a good decision making process on Stiles’ part, but mourned that they lost a good player.

"I played in one game last year," Stiles said, laughing.

"You also won that game and it was the championship game," Danny rebutted.

After lacrosse talk was over, Danny asked how he liked his creative writing class. Stiles loved it, it was hard, but that was good, right? They were working on a manuscript for class and since it was their biggest grade for the semester, it was basically forcing them to write a book. What was he writing about? Stiles considered telling him he didn't want anyone to know, but he admitted that it was a fantasy novel.

What about?

Was Danny too close to everything to figure it out? He'd changed the names and the locations and even did some research on Google Maps so that he could accurately use the new city in his manuscript.

It was about werewolves.

"Of course you'd write about werewolves," Danny laughed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Stiles asked, the color draining from his face. Shit. Danny knew. Danny knew. Danny knew.

"It just seems...you," Danny responded and Stiles almost breathed a sigh of relief, but that would've let on too much. So Stiles let Danny in on a little more of the plot.

A week after that they saw some horrible movie and the week after that, they sat at Stiles’ house and drank hot chocolate all day. A couple months later it was commonly known that Stiles and Danny were dating and had somehow shown up on the homecoming ballot?

"How did we get nominated? I don't understand this at all," Stiles said looking at the slip of paper that had been passed out during their first period class.

"I'm voting for you guys," Scott said biting into his lunch, "Just watch out for Lydia she's probably regretting helping you guys." The lady in question had also been nominated with Jackson.

"I didn't even know people knew who I was, Scott," Stiles tried to point out. Danny sat down on the other side of the table from Stiles and Stiles smiled at him. "How did we get nominated?"

"Stiles is having a hard time processing the news," Isaac informed Danny.

"Because we're a great couple," Danny said, "And we're gonna wipe the floor with Jackson." Stiles laughed and it may have been just a bit more maniacal than necessary, but the idea of beating Jackson out for Homecoming King was too sweet to resist.

"Wait...whose going to be the Queen, because it's not going to be me," Stiles said and Danny raised his eyebrows at him.

"I'm taller though, so I can't be Queen," Danny argued playfully. "Besides you're the bottom in this relationship so..." Stiles was grateful that he was not the only one who blushed because Scott not only blushed but also started to choke on his food.

They'd tried sex with both taking turns topping and Stiles liked both, but Danny preferred topping and so Stiles let him because he enjoyed receiving just as much. Having it brought up in front of his best friend and another dude however was unexpected.

"Why?!" was all Stiles could say in response, putting his hands out on the table. Danny just smiled at him and leaned across to kiss him lightly. "You are not forgiven."

"I'll do that thing with my tongue-"

"THAT'S NOT MAKING YOU ANY LESS UNFORGIVEN."

"Stiles, may I have a word with you?" Hell on high heels, also known as Lydia, was at the head of their table now and Stiles could see that she had the same yellow paper in her hand that he had in his. Stiles feigned a scared look towards Danny who mouthed 'I'll miss you.' Scott wished him good luck.

They walked about three steps away when Lydia threatened his life if he tried to take away her homecoming crown. Stiles was still unsure how he was nominated in the first place, but that was the least of Lydia's concerns. Apparently being nominated against Lydia was cause for justifiable homicide.

November was fast upon them and so far nothing had happened with the wolves. They were waiting for something. Stiles didn't know what and Derek didn't either from the few and far texts they sent each other. They'd made no further contact with either of them or anyone else as far as they knew.

But after school on the last day before thanks giving break Stiles was greeted by a fresh scratch on the side of his jeep and as he followed the scratch to the side he was met by someone who he did not expect at all and had completely forgotten about.

"Erica?" He sputtered.

"Hi, Stiles," She smiled at him, her claws still detracted. "How's it going?" Stiles was about to say something when she shut him up with a, "Never mind. Anyways, tell Derek I've got a new pack. One that appreciates my femininity."

"Why don't you tell him yourself?" Stiles asked, "And fix my car while you're at it?" She growled at him, and all he did was raise his eyebrows in return. His hands went into his pocket where he fingered the crystal. His lessons with Deaton, while slow, had already taught him a lot. He was sure he'd be able to take on a baby werewolf if he needed to.

She retracted her claws, however, and when Stiles blinked she was gone. When did werewolves get that fast? I mean really, when Lana did it he didn't even hear her open and close his jeep door. It was getting on his nerves.

He was supposed to go meet Danny at his house to hang out, but texted him and said he was going to be late. He had to talk to Derek, because for months the pack has done nothing, but tell Stiles that they were there and they still had no idea what they were there for.

Why did they keep coming to tell Stiles? Why not anyone else? What exactly did they want from Beacon Hills and what made them come there in the first place? Stiles had no idea, but he was sure Derek had to know more. They wouldn't be doing all of this, bothering with nonsense for no reason. Something was going to happen, something soon.

Danny asked why he was going to be late and Stiles told him he had to talk to Derek Hale.

Who?

Oh...crap.

There was something Stiles needed to tell Danny.

What?

Stiles didn't have a cousin named Miguel.

Well that was weird, but Danny guessed it didn't really matter now. Just don't spend too long with Derek because he wanted to start their vacation with a good night.

Derek didn't take long because Derek wasn't there, and he wasn't responding to texts and he wasn't answering his phone. Stiles tried jiggling the door handle, but it was locked. After stalkerishly perusing the entire parking building Stiles had to admit that Derek was MIA because his Camaro was nowhere among the cars in the lot. He angrily huffed over to Danny's where they spent the night playing video games while cuddling.

Danny read some of Stiles’ manuscript and made him write some more on the spot so he could know what happened next and Stiles guessed that meant he liked it and of course Danny liked it was Stiles stupid? Sometimes, yeah. Well that's okay because Danny liked Stiles too.

"Good," Stiles said, "Because I heard a rumor that Stiles liked you back."

"You're so handsome," Danny said, unexpectedly. They didn't usually complement each other out of nowhere.

"Thank you, and all the parts of your face are exactly where they should be," Stiles replied with a grin.

"Thanks, Stiles," Danny said. Stiles fell asleep in Danny's arms on the floor of Danny's bedroom and a smile on his face. Danny thought that there might be a problem because he was afraid he would fall in love with Stiles. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but he was afraid that he wouldn't get to keep Stiles for much longer and he had no idea why he felt that way.

Maybe if they won homecoming royalty he'd feel better. He'd even let Stiles be the King if he wanted to.


	5. Confrontation

Stiles didn't know how time went by so quickly, but Thanksgiving break went, and Homecoming was only a week away now. Danny was busy campaigning hard while Stiles basically told people it didn't matter to him either way, although if he had to pick he'd rather pick losing because he didn't want Lydia to kill him.

Lydia still spoke to him, but whenever he brought up the topic of homecoming she would shoot daggers at him and remind him of his incredible need to lose this election.

The day came one weekend while Stiles and Danny were in the middle of a rather hot make out session that Lydia burst into Stiles' room with Jackson behind her and arms full of bags again.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Stiles half-shouted at her. Jackson looked furious at Danny even though he had been aware that they had been dating this whole time and painfully aware that they were sexually active because of the time that Danny asked Jackson for a condom because they'd ran out.

"Very important Homecoming preparations, you'll forgive me," Lydia answered, "Button your pants, boys, you won't be getting any of that until much later." Stiles groaned in response.

"Why do you even care? We're your competition!" Stiles said as he pulled himself off of Danny.

"Like they're any competition," Danny shot and Lydia gave him her best impression of shoving a knife in his forehead with her eyes. In her bags, Lydia had tuxes already picked out and fitted to their measurements even though Stiles remembered perfectly well that he did not give Lydia any of his measurements.

"The color scheme for Homecoming is red and white. So we're going to match the color scheme and we'll all be couture and ready for the coronation, but you won't look pathetic when Jackson and I take the crown," was Lydia's response, smiling smugly at her retort.

Stiles was wearing a red suit with a white vest and a white tie, his jacket and pants were red, while Danny was wearing the opposite. There was a white rose and a red rose for each of them to pin to the other's lapel, but not until Homecoming where people could see them do it.

"You sound an awful lot like you're helping us," Stiles pointed out.

"You'll need all the help you can get," Lydia responded. Lydia's dress was a short shift that blurred from white to red, and Jackson was simply wearing a pair of white pants and a white button-down with a red tie so that he matched Lydia, but wasn't identical to her.

"Is that all?" Stiles asked. He didn't care if they won the crown or not, he just wanted to have a good time with his friends and his boyfriend. He had been trying to have a good time with his boyfriend earlier, but apparently that wasn't going to happen because this coronation meant more to everyone but him.

After they left and Stiles had appropriately tucked away his tux - which Stiles made sure was on loan and not his to keep - Danny and he were all alone again. Danny was laying on Stiles bed and Stiles fixed him with look that clearly implied picking up where they left off, but the slam of a car door followed shortly by the front door changed their plans again. His dad was home so there were to be no fun times that night.

After dinner Stiles walked Danny outside and they kissed each other goodnight and Danny may have made an unnecessary rub that Stiles had to quickly run upstairs to take a shower for.

Scott called later and they talked about how Stiles had heard that Allison wasn't going and Scott said he was going alone. He would be legally allowed to attend this Dance since he was maintaining a B average in all of his classes so far this year. Stiles had barely scraped a four-point-one this semester so far, but he was hoping to raise it more with the completion of his manuscript.

The week before homecoming went by crazy fast, probably because Stiles just wanted this coronation thing to be over. Danny really wanted to win, and that was fine with Stiles, but he wasn't a fan of all the attention and was ready to be done with it. He even felt like it would be better if they didn't win because if they did, they would have to deal with the announcement and the posters and everything and then they'd get a spot in the yearbook and it was just too much for Stiles. He didn't want that.

The night of Homecoming finally came and Stiles was waiting to be picked up. He offered to drive in his jeep, but Lydia wouldn't allow that. The four of them would be going together, not in a limo, but in a car that was still painfully too expensive and completely unnecessary. The whatever-they-were-driving in pulled up and they stepped out and headed into the gym.

They weren't the only ones who had dressed to match the scheme, but they were some of the few and the four of them looked striking in the red and white decorated gym with their coordinated ensemble. As much as Stiles didn't like to admit it, eyes were all on them.

They drew a small crowd in front of the voting table while they pinned their roses to each other's lapels and Stiles was disgustingly aware of the yearbook photographers clicking their cameras as they leaned into each other for a kiss after. He danced with his boyfriend and he danced with Lydia, staying mostly in one spot while with Danny, but sweeping Lydia across most of the gym floor in an attempt to embarrass his ferocious friend. They sat and drank punch and Stiles was warned that if he spilled on himself or Danny the fate would be worse than beating Lydia for the crown. So he made sure not to do that. He asked Scott to dance, as a joke, and expected Scott to glare or rip his throat out with his teeth, but Scott smiled and said yes. So they danced like idiots on the floor and laughed their way back to Jackson and Lydia, where Jackson looked as though he'd rather be the kanima again than be seen with clinically insane people. Danny was coming back with a plate of food on it for Stiles. He had to hand it to Danny, the man knew the path straight to Stiles’s heart.

Then Erica showed up with Gabbi, Lana and Luna about an hour into it and they looked normal. The news that Erica Reyes had come home was blown over quickly and Stiles didn't really know how it got ignored so easily considering she’d been a runaway for almost half a year, but things happened. What Stiles wasn’t expecting was when, a few moments later, Allison walked in and joined the four werewolf girls at their table.

Stiles hit Scott repeatedly until he got his attention and pointed it out. Allison was at homecoming with four werewolves at least one of which she knew was a werewolf. Scott was angry, and upset, he could tell. But it spoke miles for how much control he'd gained over himself because his eyes didn't even change color.

"Didn't you tell her they were werewolves?" Scott asked Stiles. Stiles thought back as far as he could and no. No he didn't. He told her that there were werewolves in Beacon Hills, but not who the werewolves were.

This wasn't bad. Nope. It didn't have to be bad at all. Except for Lana's voice echoing in his memory that they weren't killing anymore, but recruiting. They'd already recruited Erica, obviously, but now they wanted someone to turn.

"Do you have any mountain ash?" Scott asked Stiles in a whisper and Gabbi looked directly at them, an expression of annoyance on her face as the words ‘mountain ash’ were uttered. She knew what they were talking about and she knew that they knew why they might need it.

Stiles didn't want to say anything out loud now that they were being listened to so he typed it onto his phone and handed it to Scott. One does not keep mountain ash in an expensive tuxedo rented by Lydia.

"Everything alright?" Danny asked and Stiles turned and automatically reached for his hand.

"Everything’s fine," Stiles responded with a smile. Crap. Danny didn't know about werewolves. It hadn't been a problem before because the werewolves weren't causing any problems, but now that was the first time he'd had to lie to Danny and he was sure that it wasn't going to be his last. He threw a cautionary look at Scott and then pulled his boyfriend onto the dance floor. There was a slow song on and he tried to relax into Danny, but kept spotting glances of Lydia talking to Erica. Gabbi dancing with Lana. Luna talking to Allison. Gabbi talking to Allison. Allison walking away with the werewolf girls.

"Are you sure everything's alright? Because you're kind of tense," Danny asked again.

"I promise everything is one hundred percent totally okay. I just need a minute," Stiles said as the song ended.

"We can't though, we're supposed to go into the locker room to prep for the coronation," Danny reminded him. Lydia and Jackson were standing together waiting for them and when they met eyes Lydia waved her hand at him telling him to come.

"Do we have to? Can't we just drop out?" Stiles groaned, now was definitely not the time for this.

"Nah it's too late, let's go," Danny said laughing as he took Stiles hand in his and led him to Lydia and Jackson. They went into the locker room and a few minutes later were led onto the stage with two other couples.

There were awkward jokes made by the new Principal as she delivered a speech about the coronation and thanked the students for voting. There was light applause from the audience. She crowned one of the other two Lord and Lady, the other Duke and Duchess. Finally she received the envelope for Prince and Princess.

Stiles had increasingly felt hotter and more uncomfortable the longer he was on stage. He did not want to be up there at all and wished that Danny would've just let them pull out of the race. Lydia would've been just as happy as the uncontested Homecoming Queen, but Danny wanted control, he wanted to be coronated. He'd wanted a two month anniversary for chrissakes.

Stiles just wanted to live day by day without people knowing who he was especially when he didn't know who they were. As Lydia's and Jackson's names were called for Prince and Princess Stiles forgot about Allison and he forgot about the werewolves. Stiles forgot that he was on stage in front of most of the student body, but it didn't stop him from running offstage and out into the night. Thoughts and worries of Allison and the girls pushed from his mind.

He stopped in the parking lot, out of breath and leaned against someone's car. Danny was close behind him looking scared and worried.

"Stiles, are you alright?" He asked, clearly concerned. Stiles took a second to compose himself and he went to hug Danny who held him tight.

"We aren't alright," Stiles said, pulling away, "I don't want to be Homecoming King and it's not that I don't want to be Homecoming King with you I just don't want to be King at all. You just kept pushing and campaigning and I don't know I couldn't stop it cause it made you happy, but I didn't want this and I told you I didn't want it, but you just ignored me and that's not fair." Stiles gasped and clutched at his chest, barely able to breathe with cold sweat dripping down his neck. His eyes stung, but no tears fell.

"I'm sorry," Danny said quietly. They were silent for a while and Stiles caught his breath completely. Stiles took another moment after he caught his breath and it was like the world froze for one second and a hundred years flew by and in that hundred years Stiles found peace and calm and eternity. He found resolution.

"You aren't my life,” He started, sure of his words and that he meant them, “You're a person who is a part of me, but you aren't in control and it's my fault not yours," Stiles said, "I didn't make myself clear enough I guess, but I know what I want and how to get it I don't need someone throwing new hills to climb in my path I have enough of my own. I can't- This wasn't a good idea."

"What wasn't a good idea?" Danny asked, his arms at his side. They hadn't fought at all and Stiles had never been in a relationship before, but now he was going to end one for the first time and he had no idea how to go about it. All of his plans with Lydia featured them eloping a few days after they started dating.

"Us? This? I don't know, I just… I embarrassed both of us in there and I feel awful for it. You don't have to be dating someone like me, you should be dating someone better," Stiles said, “I don’t regret us at all and these last few months with you have been so brilliant and great. You’ve made me happy, Danny, but I ruined it like I ruin everything and I’m sorry.”

"Don't blame yourself for this because you're a great guy, Stiles," Danny said back to him, "And the best boyfriend I have ever had." Stiles heart sank because he didn't know why he didn't want to be with Danny. By all logic and reason he should want to be with Danny. Danny was the perfect man, handsome, smart, funny, but the desire to continue their relationship had vanished the moment they were crowned Kings of Homecoming. "I'm sorry." Danny said, and that was it. It was all they needed for closure. Stiles pushed himself back into Danny's arms, but neither was fooled by it. They both understood they were broken up now. Stiles and Danny would no longer be commonly known as dating.

Danny went back inside and Stiles hung out outside, waiting for the night to be over. Minutes later Lydia rushed outside, looking crazy, her hair was slightly more frizzy and she’d pushed her purse all the way onto her shoulder even though the strap wasn’t long enough.

"I don't want to hear anything-" Stiles started, but she cut him off.

"It's Allison," She said, and Stiles saw the look of fear and horror on her face for the first time. He stood up and followed her back inside. The rest of the homecoming hadn't been alerted to the apparent emergency, but Stiles kept following her through the other side of the gym, this time out onto the lacrosse field.

Allison was in the middle of the field, but not alone and more than probably unwilling. She was on her knees, one arm in Lana's clawed hand and the other arm held in Luna's equally wolfy hand. Erica was standing right behind her and Gabbi was red-eyed and staring down Scott, Jackson and Isaac who were all wolfed out as well.

"Allison!" Stiles cried out. Lana and Luna shifted to see them running to look at them, but the other wolves didn't look. Stiles reached for the crystal in his pocket, but it wasn't there. He'd left it at home because he wouldn't be wearing anything that he could comfortably carry a large rock it.

When he finally reached them nothing had changed, but he could see that Allison was crying and there was blood trickling down her cheek. Scott was furiously wolfed out to the point where Stiles could see him shaking.

"Hi, Stiles, how's it going?" Gabbi asked him, not taking her eyes off the three wolves ready to lunge at her. She hadn’t shifted at all into her beta form except for her eyes. A subtle reminder that she was more powerful than the three of them combined.

"I was doing a pretty good job of having a crap night on my own before you showed up," Stiles responded.

"Congratulations on the victory, by the way, I can see you were just thrilled by it, where's your boyfriend at?" She continued, tongue clicking on her teeth as she smiled with her mouth open. Stiles clenched his jaw tight.

"He's not my boyfriend anymore."

"Sorry to hear about that, I'm sure he will find someone more worthwhile soon."

"Why are you doing this? What do you need her for?" Stiles asked, angry now.

"We told you," Gabbi started, "We're recruiting and we found Erica awhile back and now we're taking Allison."

"You're taking her against her will?" Stiles asked. She had obviously not experienced a new werewolf turned against their will. Stiles had nearly been killed by such a werewolf several times.

"We'll turn her, keep her and talk some sense into her," Gabbi explained, "Allison is the perfect candidate to join our pack. After we convince her that it's what's best she'll thank me and then she’ll kill for me."

"Let her go, Gabbi," A voice said from behind. Derek walked up, solemn and cool. "Move on." Gabbi smiled at her, exposing her elongated teeth apparently unable to hold back the change as things got more exciting. "You have no business turning her."

Gabbi laughed at Derek and Stiles felt a tense tightening in his chest as his breath caught. The air was heavy between them and Stiles was starting to feel jumpy, hands twitching as a warm tingle spread from his feet through his calf just below his skin.

"Where've you been, Derek?" Gabbi asked. Derek didn't reply. "I see you've been neglecting your pups." Erica growled from the back. Gabbi motioned for her to come forward. "Erica here was telling us how you used them as shields, turned them to stand between you and the hunters and left them to die."

Erica stepped forward and smiled at Derek, but it was not a 'happy to see you' smile. It was an 'I'm going to rip your throat out' smile.

"See I normally wouldn't take someone like Erica into my pack," Gabbi said, "She ran away when things got tough, she's weak and irrational." It was clear by the wavering glance that Erica was not expecting that to be said or didn't know that Gabbi felt that way, but her smile didn’t quiver and her stance held firm.

"Then why did you?" Derek asked. He looked so sad as he met Erica's gaze head on. He didn't want any of this to happen to her, but it did and it was plain on his face that he regretted every second of every bad thing that had happened.

"So I could do this," Gabbi said and she let a terrible roar out as she turned fully and shoved a clawed hand through Erica's stomach. Bone and blood bursting out the other side. Allison and Lydia screamed, but you couldn't hear them over the sound of growls from both sides. Stiles was shocked at first, but as Derek transformed and moved to lunge forward Stiles knelt to the ground, digging his fingers deep within the earth. The warm sensation burning hot over his whole body now.

From outside when the others noticed they saw his eyes glowing with a brilliant white light, his gaze fixed directly on Gabbi and her pack. Gabbi's eyes widened a look of recognition and fear coming across her face. The red flickered and faded from Gabbi's eyes to a light brown and her claws retracted. She watched, horrified as they did so, holding her hands in front of her face. Erica's limp form lay on the ground at her feet and she turned to growl at Lana and Luna and the three of them fled from the field, taking Allison with them. They were gone in a heartbeat.

Stiles pulled his hands out of the ground with difficulty, it was as if the earth had opened up to him and tried to pull him in more. The magic ebbed in his veins like an open sore, stinging and burning with each beat of his heart. He stumbled forward slightly, but Derek was there to catch him. He looked up and Derek was squinting down at him with the same look of recognition and fear that Gabbi had. Stiles shook uncontrollably with chills and drew his arms in, his hand touched something cool and wet and he noticed that he had been hit by the spray of blood as Erica was killed just feet away from him. He buried himself tighter into Derek who held him when he finally fainted from the overuse of magic his last thought was at least you couldn’t see the blood against his red jacket, but you could.

Hours later he woke up in the guest room of Derek's apartment. He'd only been there twice, but he recognized it instantly. His head throbbed painfully and he rolled out of bed onto the floor. His legs and arms felt like blocks of concrete and his chest felt hollow and sore. Every part of his body twinged with pain and discomfort.

Just thinking about getting up from his highly uncomfortable position on the floor made his body throb sharply. There were footsteps that echoed loudly in his ears and strong arms lifted him off the ground and placed him gently on the bed.

"Where..." Stiles said weakly. Derek sat down on the edge of Stiles' bed and Stiles groaned loudly as he somehow shifted into a very low sitting position.

"You should sleep some more," Derek said, not looking at Stiles. Not talking to Stiles. Just making a statement to whoever it was laying in Derek's bed in Derek's guest room in Derek's apartment. Derek glanced in Stiles’s direction as he stood up, but didn't look at him. "We'll talk when you're able to."

"I can..." Stiles whispered, but he already felt himself falling back into unconsciousness. Derek left and closed the door behind him and Stiles made a point to not fall asleep. It was hard, but a short while later he was able to sit up on his own. He paused to catch his breath as the ache finally ebbed down to a dull throb keeping time with his heart.

When he caught his breath he stood up and followed Derek out of the room, leaning on the wall in the hallway for support. What felt like ten minutes later, he'd made it the short trip down the hall into the living room doorway.

"That's not sleeping, Stiles," Derek sighed, annoyed, from the kitchen. Stiles saw himself in the reflection off the TV for the first time and he looked like hell. The circles under his eyes were almost black and the rest of his face was the lightest shade of white. His cheeks looked hollowed and seeing himself like that made him feel even more listless and dead than falling out of bed earlier.

"What happened?" Stiles asked, his voice cracking. He remembered what happened at Homecoming. He remembered breaking up with Danny and running out the field where everything went to hell again. Beacon Hills, more like War Zone. He remembered Erica dying, being spattered with blood and bone. The room span as he thought of it. "Oh god," Stiles said, and Derek was at his side again, holding him up. Stiles would've thrown up if there had been anything to throw up, so Derek held him while he dry heaved over the sink.

Erica was dead. Erica was dead. She was dead. He watched her die. He'd seen people killed and he'd been around plenty of gore, but none of it had felt like this. None of it had been his friend. Someone who he knew and cared about had died. Dead? Died? Dead. It didn't even seem like a real concept anymore. How can people be dead? Alive and breathing and trying to turn one of your friends into a werewolf one minute and then gone with a hole in their torso the next. It didn't make sense. How can someone die?

He wasn't sure when they'd moved from the sink to the couch, but Derek was handing him a glass of water and Stiles was drinking it. He was crying now and he didn't know what to do so he leaned into Derek who held him. He missed Erica. He missed Danny. He just wanted a nice homecoming, but now everything sucked.

He fell asleep in Derek's arms and woke up hours later back in the guest room feeling a lot better. He could breathe without getting out of breath and he stretched without feeling like he was ripping himself to pieces. He stood and didn’t' need to stop to rest. This was an improvement. He was going to be alright.

Derek was in the kitchen and had two cups of coffee ready. He handed one to Stiles mumbling something about how he didn't know how Stiles liked his coffee. He still wasn't looking Stiles in the eye. Stiles didn't care about his coffee that much. He just wanted to know what happened, where Allison was, what did they do with Erica's body?

"We...don't know where Allison is," Derek said, "And the Argents are ready to kill anyone who comes between them and finding her human." Stiles felt a rock forming in his stomach with each word. Everything just went straight to shit. "We buried Erica at the house in the woods, there's a marker for her." Good. Stiles wanted to say goodbye properly, and he felt a rock form in his throat as well.

"Have you tried looking for Allison?" Stiles asked, choking past the rock in his throat and Derek nodded, they were working with the Argents to an extent, trying to pick up on anybody's scent that could lead them towards Gabbi and her pack.

"We were hoping you could help," Derek said, "Use your magic to try and find her, but only when you're strong enough. Deaton will be here soon to talk to you about what happened, about why you nearly died." Derek turned his back to Stiles then, spoke to the wall.

"Did I do something wrong?" Stiles asked, "You won't even look me in the eye. Is it because I didn't tell you that I'm a witch?" How could he help someone who couldn't even stand to look at him.

"You shouldn't exist," Derek whispered.

"What?" Stiles asked, bewildered.

"I don't care that you're a witch, Stiles, that much was obvious for a long time, but you shouldn't have that much power," Derek said his voice just above a whisper.

"Did I do something wrong, Derek?" Stiles asked, as far as he was concerned he almost killed himself saving everybody's life.

" Stiles, I have never met a witch who was powerful enough to force one werewolf back into their human shape let alone three," Derek said, angry, "Deaton has never heard of someone like that before except in legend." They were silent for a few moments while Stiles processed everything, Derek said that Deaton could explain it better when he showed up.

Stiles checked his phone. His dad texted, called, and left eighteen voicemails. Scott texted once. Danny texted, worried cause Stiles hadn't been at school for a few days. Wait...a few days? How long was he out?

"Today's Tuesday," Derek answered when Stiles asked. Tuesday? He'd been knocked out for three days. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten and his stomach decided to use that as a good sign to rumble quietly. Derek noticed and started making eggs. Deaton showed up shortly after.

"What is going on with me?" Stiles asked him point blank before Deaton even had a chance to say hello.

"There is nothing going on with you, Stiles, you're just powerful," He explained. He talked while he checked Stiles to see how his body was recovering. Apparently there hadn't been a witch powerful enough to force a shift in centuries and Stiles was that witch. There were many legends and superstitions surrounding these witches. It was supposedly a witch that created the first shapeshifters, cursing a human to transform into a monster. No one had been able to do it since to prove the theory correct or incorrect however, and no witch had ever forced a shifter back into its human form either.

"So I'm some ultimate witch then?" Stiles asked, just for clarification. Yes he was, as he'd put it, the 'ultimate witch.' Stiles was blindsided by that one. So that basically meant that he would be useful now...right? He wouldn't have to stand on the sidelines and run for his life anymore?

"Just don't try any magic like that again, Stiles, you haven't come into your full powers yet and magic that powerful has a price," Deaton warned, "Legend says that death follows these 'ultimate witches."

He called Scott first and found out that they'd told his dad that he and Scott took a road trip. Really? A road trip? Couldn't they have just brought him to the hospital and said he ate something funny? He'd been awake two seconds and could think of a better excuse than Scott did. Scott had hid out at his house while his mom covered. She said that she'd been told Stiles had permission and didn't see any problems with it. The phone call to his father ended with Stiles being grounded until he graduated from college and on the condition that he'd graduated top of his class at an Ivy League school.

He sent a text to Danny giving him the excuse and letting him know everything was fine. He almost put a 'See you soon' at the end of his text, but remembered they weren't together anymore.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked, looking at Stiles for once. Stiles waved his phone in the air.

"Broke up with my boyfriend that night," he said, sadly, "I don't regret it, but I'm still sad about it." Stiles stood up then, not ready to go home, but without much reason to stay there any longer. He was about to leave when Derek offered him a beer. "Yeah, sure."

They drank in silence and soon had gone through a few each. Stiles wasn't going anywhere by car anytime soon now and texted his Dad that he would be home later. Derek talked about how he knew Deaton and how Deaton had helped his family with magic. Stiles talked about what he knew he could do with magic and the crystal Deaton had given him as an anchor.

Stiles talked about Erica and Derek talked about Erica. Stiles started crying again because last time he didn't cry he just threw up his empty stomach. Derek held him and whether it was because it felt nice and it reminded him of Danny or because he was drunk and emotionally unstable or because he was Stiles and he was an idiot he looked up at Derek and very solidly kissed him.

He didn't remember much after that, but he knew that he definitely wasn't pushed away or stopped and that the kiss continued. Derek even kissed him back and he remembered being carried to a bed, but not the guest room and that was where he woke up. In Derek's apartment, in Derek's bedroom, in Derek's bed, in Derek's arms.

That was something that he expected even less than the idea that he was part of some line of hugely powerful witches that only showed up every few centuries. He smiled and nestled into Derek closer, whose arm tightened his grip around his waist, breathing a deep sigh he nuzzled his head into the back of Stiles’s neck, stubble tickling and scratching the sensitive skin there.


	6. Anchor

Gabbi hadn't had a pack for awhile. She'd killed her old pack almost as soon as Derek left New York. It wasn't what she normally would've done, but Kate had told her it was necessary. Kill her old pack and then follow her to Beacon Hills where Derek was surely headed next. It took some time to track them all down once she started killing them, the other girls were quick to spread the news and knew when they were in danger.

Gabbi was stronger than them, though. She was faster and smarter and they knew it was only a matter of time before she found them. She was almost sad to kill some of them, wolves who she'd raised from pups to killing machines. These were the ones who put up the best fight.

Word had spread quickly though, Derek Hale was an alpha now. That had been an interesting turn of events, but she was not worried. Kate wouldn't be phased by him. She headed towards Beacon Hills and learned that Kate was dead and became filled with an unspeakable rage. It was three days before she'd calmed down enough to shift back human and she learned that she'd somehow ended up in Northern Canada. A bloody trail followed her all the way back to California as she took her anger out on dozens of men from city to city. Murder rates soared in small downs where there hadn't been a murder in decades.

Gabbi found Lana and Luna on her way back to Beacon Hills and being with a pack brought her back to her senses somewhat. She had a plan now and that plan was to pay her revenge on Derek, find what he cherished most and kill it. Then she'd kill Derek.

Lana and Luna soon proved their worth to the pack. Luna had the image of a sweet, innocent girl down and was able to lure the people they needed to forge their documents into the abandoned warehouse they were staying in. When her prey had been totally charmed and didn't expect she would shift and drag their screaming bodies to Gabbi where they were forced to create birth certificates and IDs. Gabbi let Luna do with them as she pleased after and discovered the younger girl had a sweet tooth for torture. Her victims forced to play with her until she grew bored and killed them.

Lana found them fake families, people who enrolled them in schools and were only allowed to keep their lives if they didn't say anything. She was much more direct and less deceiving than Luna was, but her methods proved just as effective. No one found the bodies that they'd collected and no investigations were started.

It wasn't long until Gabbi had picked out the boy that Derek had fallen for. A ridiculous teenager with buzzed hair and no coordination. Derek had always been prone to doom and gloom, but watching him taking walks that would eventually intersect with the boy's Street. These walks were long and he used different routes every time, but the only correlation was that street and that house.

They had a couple weeks to kill before they infiltrated the school and Gabbi spent that time solidifying her research. Derek couldn't know they were there until they were ready to move and so she developed a plan to slowly nit and pick at Stiles and to kill him before Derek's very eyes.

They'd found Erica blundering around, lost and alone, and Gabbi saw only another way to taunt Derek. Rub his failure in his face. His failure as an alpha. She spoke of a boy, but Gabbi didn't care. She quickly revised her plan to include Erica, but didn't reveal the final goal of killing Stiles. She spun a tale about how they were only there to recruit and gain allies. Erica believed her. It was almost too easy tricking the pup.

Gabbi had set everything up perfect for Homecoming. It was going to be brilliant, kill Erica and in the heat of battle the human would be unprotected. She had no desire to keep Allison or to turn her, the girl was too devoted to her father. She was only bait.

The ridiculous human boy who Derek had fallen for had ruined everything though. In all their watching and learning none of them suspected him a witch. They'd figured that his visits to the Vet were because Scott worked there and that nothing supernatural was going on.

It wasn't that he was a witch that was the problem, though, he was a strong witch. Stronger than Gabbi had ever met and that was why they'd kept the Argent girl. Gabbi detested looking at her, she vaguely resembled Kate and it only infuriated Gabbi more. She paced in abandoned werehouse, Luna was keeping watch outside and Lana was sprawled across a sofa reading a Nightwing comic.

"What do we do, Lana?" Gabbi asked, mostly because she needed to think outloud for a few minutes. The discovery that Stiles was actually a witch was undesirable and irritating. Lana looked up from her comic.

"Kill him in his sleep?" Lana suggested. That would be a last resort. Gabbi wanted to see Derek's face as she ripped Stiles still beating heart from his chest. "There's the iron chain myth." She suggested after Gabbi verbally described the scene in her head. That could work. Witches couldn't use magic in a ring of iron.

New ideas began to form in Gabbi's head and she was once again grateful she'd decided to run in a pack again. Lana and Luna would be her greatest creations yet.

"Luna," Gabbi said in her normal tone, knowing Luna could hear her. A sing-song voice answered her and Gabbi ordered her to find iron chains, a lot of them. Kill anyone who interfered. The sound of Luna running off reached her ears and Gabbi smiled. She would still be able to kill the boy, she just had to lure him to the right spot.

Allison wimpered where she was tied up in the corner. Bound and gagged by rope and a piece of cloth torn from her homecoming dress. She was bruised and dirty, her hair hung in strings slick with sweat and oil from not bathing. It was perfect. Stiles would come running for his friend, and Derek would come running after Stiles. Once Stiles was within the ring they'd be able to chain him up for slaughter and all they'd need was an audience to watch.

The mere image of Stiles's body suspended by chains from the ceiling, blood pooling beneath his feet onto Derek's mangled corpse almost gave Gabbi the satisfaction she needed to move on, but not quite.

Allison wimpered again and Gabbi walked over, she couldn't remember the last time they'd fed her or watered her, but she was fading and Gabbi had Lana bring her something to eat and drink. They untied her arms and Allison only ate because she knew she would die if she didn't. Once she was done her arms were secured at her sides again and Gabbi told her exactly what she planned on doing.

Nothing was going to get in her way now.

Luna was back shortly with more than enough of the iron chain for the trap. Gabbi smiled wickedly the entire time they were setting up. Allison watched intently without making a sound, stronger now. Gabbi laughed openly as her perfect plan came together. Now that all the cards had been shown, there were no more surprises Derek and his pack had up their sleeves anymore.

All that remained was fetching the human boy and bringing him to the spot. Gabbi sent Lana to collect him.

Stiles was in his room, working on his essay as best he could, but was having a hard time concentrating. Every time he started writing he would only get a few sentences deep before he would stop and check his phone to see if Derek had texted. Then he'd spend a few minutes wandering vaguely around his room wondering what was going on. Danny had been relieved that he was okay and they'd spoken here and there, exchanged a couple texts, but they hadn't seen each other outside of school and the news of their break up was already dying down.

Stiles was more concerned about him and Derek at this point though. Derek didn't say anything to him the next morning, barely acknowledged that Stiles was there. Stiles tried to say something, even reached out and touched his arm, but Derek turned and walked to another part of the kitchen at the touch. It wasn't jerky it was just him walking away.

In his mind Stiles was continuously cussing himself out for being an idiot for making the move at all for being ridiculous. Stiles ruined everything good, that was all there was to it. He was cursed to never have happiness for too long. He pulled out his phone and rapidly and very angrily typed out

WHY

WON'T

YOU

TALK

TO

ME

And sent it to Derek and shortly after he sent another text begging Derek to just let him down already because being hurt would be better than not knowing and right now he had a lot of stuff he needed to do, but couldn't get anything done because he was too damn distracted by Derek being an asshole with the silent treatment.

Five minutes later he got a reply.

Not letting you down, just adjusting.

What the fucking hell did that mean? So they were a thing now? That was a thing that was happening? Them? Derek and Stiles? Stiles stared at the text and read and reread and rereread to the point where the image was burned into his retinas and he saw the digital letters floating before his eyes even when he looked away from his phone. He typed out half a dozen messages, but sent none of them.

Oh god. If this thing was thing that was actually happening though how was he going to tell his dad? Hey, Dad, you know that guy you thought was a crazy, lunatic serial killer? Well I'm dating him now. Also, he's a werewolf and he might actually be a crazy, lunatic serial killer, I'll keep you posted, but don't worry cause he's actually a great guy. A great guy, with a wonderful smile that he needed to use more often. A deep, throaty laugh that made Stiles's lips twitch just thinking about it.

He was also the alpha which made Stiles like the first lady of Beacon Hills, right? Did he get to tell Scott what to do now? Probably not, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try. What was he even doing though, he hadn't received one hundred percent confirmation that they were a thing that was happening yet and he was already fantasizing about giving orders as the Alpha's right hand man.

Stiles sent another text that was simply a question mark and Derek replied with a smiley face. That was something he would never get over and was completely out of character for Derek. A smiley face? That was all he had to say? Sure, he had to adjust, but he also had to give Stiles some peace of mind right?

Um, excuse me, but are we dating?

Do you want to be dating?

If I answer yes and you say no I'll probably do some really dramatic witch stuff that'll be potentially dangerous to both of us.

Are you blackmailing me with magic, Stiles?

I won't have to if we're dating.

You just broke up with someone are you sure you want to be in another relationship that fast?

Yes.

And that was how Stiles and Derek became a thing that was a thing that was happening.

"You have one chance to save, Allison," Lana's voice drifted lazily from the window sill where she was perched, flipping through Nightwing volume two issue fifty-seven. Stiles only took notice because the exact same comic lay on the ground underneath his desk amidst a pile of other Batman themed comics.

"What do you want?" Stiles asked her, focusing on the issue at hand. The one chance to save rule in movies meant there was something that they wanted to trade her for. Since they had the upperhand in this situation it probably wasn't safety and Stiles highly doubted that they were going to ask for money. Which meant they wanted somebody or something and if he had to guess.

He'd guess what they wanted was magic.

"You," Lana said, "Now come with me," She said all this without once looking up from her comic book. Stiles pulled on his coat and Lana jumped from the window. Stiles looked down from the second floor and saw her leaning against a tree, still reading. Stiles quickly perched himself on the sill, facing outwards and with a deep breath he leapt off the sill. He landed with a soft thunk on the ground beneath and he quietly cheered in his mind that he hadn't just committed suicide.

"So are you riding with me or are you just giving me directions?" Stiles asked. She didn't say anything, just stepped away from the tree and started walking in the opposite direction of his jeep, she wasn't running so taking the jeep would be a little ridiculous just to follow her. He walked behind her, keeping his distance.

She didn't seem to mind and he didn't want to walk next to her anyways, this way if she tried to attack he'd have a small window to protect himself with magic.

He held the crystal tightly in his hand with his hands in his pocket. In his mind he tried to think of every situation that could happen between now and to where they were going. If she suddenly turned and attacked. If Luna or Gabbi sprung out of nowhere. If all three of them attacked at once. If they tried to kill Allison in front of him. Every tree, car and building was a hiding place and Stiles, had he been less sure of himself or as he liked to call it, before magic, would've had a panic attack by now. Eyes darting from place to place as their walk went longer and longer.

He wondered if he should attempt to text Derek or Scott. He hadn't been told no, at least. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started to tap on it, but nearly ran into Lana. She was facing him and had one hand on her hip and the other, holding the comic, at her side.

"Put your phone away," She told him, eyes glowing yellow. "Or both you and Allison will die." Stiles complied, but not before he sent the nearly blank text to Scott. It read one word.

Allison.

They kept walking and Stiles fell back again, walking about ten steps behind Lana. They were in the warehouse district of Beacon Hills where everything for every major store was stored. There had to be some hunters assigned to search the are, but the girls had somehow managed to evade them and anyone they might've sent after them.

They came to the back door of an older warehouse, the green paint peeling off it's damaged walls. There were trashcans tipped over outside and everything was boarded up. It looked completely abandoned while the ones around it looked in near perfect condition. They couldn't have been here for long because there was no way Chris Argent wouldn't check a building like this first.

Stiles caught his foot on a stray chain walking into the building and kicked it aside, annoyed at his clumsiness in front of an evil murder she-wolf. She didn't say anything or show any sign that she was disturbed by his lack of coordination during such a serious matter as trading a life for a life.

Luna was laying an old, worn out couch and Gabbi was standing over by Allison, who was tied to a chair. She turned and smiled when they came in.

"Lana," she said in a near sing-song voice, "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," Lana replied. Lana went over and sat on the couch next to Luna. Stiles stayed in the doorway, watching the scene. His thumb was rubbing circles on the crystal nervously. There was no way that Scott didn't understand the message that Stiles had sent him and ideally he would've rounded up some backup before going to track Stiles, but honestly, knowing Scott, he'd probably read the word, 'Allison' and had some kind of a conniption before running off on his own to track Stiles.

"Hello, Stiles," Gabbi said, taking a few steps towards him, "Why don't you come in?" Stiles looked to Allison who was staring right at him. Her head was moving in a nearly imperceptible, 'No.' "All I want to do, Stiles, is talk." Stiles took a few more steps in, at the same time Luna and Lana stood to go take their places behind Gabbi.

"What do you want from me?" Stiles asked, looking from them to Allison who was now blatantly shaking her head no, her eyes begging for him to leave. Gabbi laughed, she hadn't stopped smiling so far as he'd seen.

"We don't want anything from you, Stiles," She said, stepping forward, her eyes glowing red now. Stiles tensed. She took a few steps closer until they were only a few feet away. "Nothing at all, except-"

Allison spit the gag from her mouth and screamed at him to run, it was a trap and the other wolves were on her in less than a second. Stiles jerked forward, pulling the crystal from his pocket.

Nothing happened at first, Gabbi merely stood to the side and laughed, finishing her own shift. Her teeth and claws exposed she looked far more menacing with her smile on.

"Did you honestly thing that we'd let you come here, knowing about your magic, without some kind of a plan?" She asked him, "Are you really that big of an idiot, Stiles?" Stiles's mouth dropped open and he looked at the crystal in his hand as if it had betrayed him.

"Well?" Stiles asked, dropping the Crystal on the ground, his arms spread wide showing he had nothing else left up his sleeves. He felt more scared than he'd had in a long time and he was seriously regretting not sending that text to Derek because Derek would've been there, he would've come to save him. "What do you want, then?" Stiles asked, sweat dripping down his face and out of breath. "Huh? What do you want, WHAT DO YOU WANT?" He screamed, and now he was openly crying, his face contorted and Gabbi laughed at him.

Stiles felt hopeless and alone and he felt awful. He couldn't do anything, didn't know anything. Allison was right there, just feet from him and he'd probably gotten them both killed by showing up alone, by not doing something sooner. He should've knocked out Lana and held her hostage the same way they were holdng Allison hostage. Should've programmed some kind of emergency message into his iPhone in case something like this happened, but he hadn't thought of anything because he was that stupid, that useless.

"Are you going to kill me?" Stiles asked, he wasn't sure when he ended up on the floor, but he had, and he was soaked in sweat, his body shivering. Hands were pulling him upright, sitting him in a chair. Something cold and hard, chains, were wrapped around his torso and they were tight, pinching him in places, but mostly constricting his breath and cutting off circulation to his arms, legs.

A voice whispered an answer in his ear, "Yes," just before the chains were pulled tighter and he let out an agonized scream as he was lifted from the ground. "I am going to kill you, Stiles," He struggled to draw in breaths, but he had to, he needed to stay awake. Off the ground, without his crystal, no water or fire in sight. There were no anchors and what did it matter? He couldn't use magic in there anyways. "Then I'm going to kill Derek and the rest of his pathetic excuse for a pack."

"Why?" Stiles croaked from his confinement in the air. His vision swam before his eyes, but he drew in as deep of a breath as he could, breathing slowly, but providing oxygen to his brain. His body felt numb now, his arms and legs buzzing with lack of sensation. It metal chains were no longer ice against his body anymore.

Gabbi walked in a circle beneath him, and she talked. About Kate Argent and New York and how Derek was running from them. Gabbi never listened to anyone without hearing both sides of the story and Kate was a woman, Derek was a man. Who would trust a man over another woman? So when Gabbi approached Kate the first time it wasn't to befriend her, or to lay a trap.

She'd simple walked up and asked, "Why does Derek Hale want you dead?" The question had caught Kate off-guard at first, but she'd quickly adjusted. Kate gave Gabbi a once over and immediately proclaimed her to be a werewolf. "How'd you know? Not that I'm hiding anything," Gabbi asked. Kate insisted that it was a sixth sense. She had to be able to quickly identify a werewolf, no matter where or what type, in her line of work. Sure, Gabbi knew about the Argents. No werewolf who had any morsel of reason didn't know about the Argents. They were the most infamous hunting family in North America.

Kate told Gabbi of her story, about how she was hunting the last of the Hales across the country, she left no detail out. Told her exactly what she'd done, how she'd killed them all in the fire. Gabbi had one weakness, one thing that she found more exciting than anything. That was playing games. She was enthralled by this game Kate had been playing with Derek and saw an even greater plot to create. She wanted in. Kate admitted she liked her style.

So Gabbi became the double agent. Lying to Derek about lying to Kate, but really she was planning Derek's demise. It was thrilling and fun. Her pack didn't even know about her intentions until she'd started killing them. Kate's world was one of chaos and disorder and Gabbi saw herself perfectly in it. Queen of the destruction standing beside Kate who left terror in her wake.

Everything was going perfectly, until their faux ambush backfired and Derek escaped. Gabbi's girls took out Kate's guys quicker than anticipated and Gabbi stopped them from killing Kate, too, who had already taken out three of Gabbi's pack.

They made a new plan and Gabbi was envigorated by the chase, she'd hadn't felt so electrified in years and this hunt was getting better and better, but she never expected Kate's death. Gabbi told Stiles that she'd found what Derek cared most for, what made Derek feel alive and decided to kill it. To kill him. Then while Derek's heart was mangled in it's grief she would kill him, too. Let him die broken-hearted.

The chains were iron and according to legend a witch wouldn't be able to use magic in an iron circle and Gabbi had lined the entire warehouse with it. He hadn't been able to do magic since he'd stepped inside. Stiles vaguely remember kicking a chain to the side and cursed himself for not knowing what could stop his magic.

There was a rustle and a growl as Scott came soaring in, the growl turning into a roar or fury and anger. He landed propped in front of Gabbi who looked perplexed as no one else barged in after him. No one should know where they were at all in the first place and Scott was definitely not who Gabbi wanted to hurt, but would if necessary.

She roared at him and leapt into the fight, taking all her anger out. Stiles panicked as he tried to think of something. If he swung maybe the chains would come loose, it would hurt and could even kill him, but it would cause a distraction for Scott. Below, Scott was losing as Gabbi picked him from the ground and threw him through a concrete wall. He did his best to rock when it came to him.

He started rocking when an idea came to him. Iron chains. Iron was metal and iron came from the earth. What was the main principle of magic? Belief. These iron chains couldn't hold him anymore. What were iron chains to the most powerful witch in centuries? Nothing. These were his anchor and he felt the blood rushing to his arms and legs as his magic worked. He dropped to the ground and landed on one knee. Smiling as he looked up. The growls behind him told him that there were two unhappy and very surprised werewolves waiting for him.

He held the chains in each of his hands and lashed them out. The chains came to life and did as he wanted them to. They wrapped themselves around the bodies of Lana and Luna and he easily tossed them to the side. Stiles ran to Allison, untying her and she stood and hugged him.

A deafening roar had them both turning to see Gabbi looking stunned and furious at them. She began to walk towards them, but Scott was at their side in a second. He looked surprised to see Stiles free too, but wasted no time in throwing Allison on his back and calling out for Stiles to run after them. Stiles looked back and saw that the three wolves had disappeared again.

If there was one thing that Gabbi knew it was when to leave, plus her plans had been foiled by a beta and a fledgling witch. She needed to regroup. Obviously Stiles was more powerful than she had thought even before when she acknowledged she had never seen a witch that strong.

The Argent house was chaotic after they arrived. Chris rushed them all inside and spent a good half hour holding his daughter and crying while Stiles called Derek. Scott called him mom and soon the place was a flurry of emotional werewolves and mothers and fathers and alphas. Isaac, Jackson and Lydia showed up and Stiles could only guess that Scott or Derek had told them. Allison might have even told Lydia that she was fine if she still had a cellphone.

Derek's biggest concern at that point was checking the damage done on Stiles. Most of his torso and his arms had link-shaped bruises from the chains. He probably had a fractured rib as well, though he hadn't noticed it in the warehouse, from being hoisted into the air by the chains. He'd gotten a bloody nose at some point, but it wasn't from being hit or falling, but by the brought on by the panic attack he suffered while feeling useless without his magic.

After it was ruled that Stiles would once again survive he was pulled in tightly for a hug from Derek and glances and expressions from everyone else told him that that was kind of weird and a complete surprise because since when did Derek give hugs to anyone? And Stiles would've had to agree with them if he had not been on the receiving end of being held by Derek several times within the last week or if he hadn't kissed Derek just days ago or if he hadn't woken up in Derek's arms the morning after that. He might've sided with them on the 'this is kind of weird why is this happening?' front. But no, instead he wrapped his bruised arms around Derek and returned the hug.

Jackson's voice broke the comfort of Derek's hug as he nearly snarled at Stiles that if he broke up with Danny and then rebounded onto Derek he would kill him. A growl from Derek shut him up though. Stiles and Derek left the Argent house soon after, leaving the chaos to have some quiet.

"Why are you continuously trying to kill yourself, Stiles?" Derek asked as they walked on the sidewalk.

Stiles shrugged, "Nearly dying seems to be the foolproof way of getting you to touch me," he responded with a small laugh. Derek smiled a little.

"If you want me to touch you all you need to do is ask," Derek said in response.

"Oh?" Stiles replied, he stopped walking and Derek turned to face him. "So, then, you wouldn't have a problem with kissing me?" Stiles asked, stepping forward gingerly.

"I might," Derek said and Stiles looked to the ground, blushing as the rejection swept over him. He took a step back, but was jerked forward as Derek's hands cupped his face and pulled him into a kiss. It was their first kiss technically, because Stiles didn't want to count the one when he was drunk and he wasn't even sure that Derek had kissed him back, but was ready to say he did given the current circumstances.

All too soon Derek's mouth left his and they walked some more side by side as Stiles told Derek of Gabbi's true intentions and the real reason she was in Beacon Hills. Derek expressed his relief that she hadn't been able to accomplish her goal that night because if she had then killing him would have been no problem. He wouldn't have been able to put up a fight.


	7. Derek

Being with Derek was a lot different than being with Danny. Their first date was at Derek's apartment watching Supernatural. Stiles was ecstatic that Castiel had finally made it back and Derek just enjoyed watching it. They didn't finish the episode however, or they didn't get to finish watching the episode because at one point during the show Derek stood and stretched exposing his lower back.

When he returned from getting them more drinks Stiles could stop touching him, his arm, his chest, his face, his neck and in minutes it was his mouth with his mouth, their hands clutching at each other and Stiles straddled Derek cutting whatever was happening on screen out as they became much more interested in each other.

The next thing Stiles was able to call a date was when he and Derek climbed into Derek's car and drove to the middle of nowhere and camped out for a weekend. It was amazing and comfortable and relaxing and made incredible entries in his settings journal. He was definitely getting an A on that assignment for sure.

They went and saw scary movies multiple times and each time came out laughing, and sometimes they hung out and played video games all day. There was this one time when they went paintballing with Scott and Isaac and they kicked their asses all over the place.

Stiles was covered in paint by the end of it though while Derek hadn't been hit once.

"You look ridiculous," Derek said laughing through his smile and Stiles responded by wiping paint all over his beard.

"Jerk," Stiles said, changing his clothes. He still had some bruising left from the chains, but most of them were faded and in some places they were gone completely, but now he could lie and say they were from the dozen welts on his body from being the absolute worst at paintball against three werewolves.

"Did you even use magic at all?" Derek asked, laughing.

"No," Stiles said, bitterly, "Because I'm not a cheat." Derek, Scott and Isaac just laughed at him. "I hate you all don't any of you talk to me ever again."

They hadn't heard or seen anything from Gabbi or her pack and Derek said they probably hadn't given up, Stiles's magic would only excite her further, make it just another obstacle for her to overcome, but they weren't going to let her. Stiles now spent a good chunk of his time learning magic and testing his boundaries with Deaton or Professor Morell. His crystal had been lost at the warehouse, but Deaton gave him a golden ring with a diamond gemstone in it. He wouldn't normally have worn it, too girly for his tastes, but since it would be an anchor that was harder to lose he didn't even take it off in the shower.

He how to use the different anchors better and what they were each for. Earth was the most abundant and most common anchor and created physical change, which was why he had been able to force the shift at homecoming after driving his fingers into the ground, and when the chains came to life and knocked Lana and Luna out of his way.

Fire created energy and powered spells, the larger and hotter the source of fire the greater enchantment could be cast, but Deaton suspected that Stiles wouldn't have any problem with casting any spells just from a match or a lighter. Stiles now carried one in his pocket and used it to cast protection wards on his house and jeep and also applied them secretly to Derek's apartment and Camaro.

Water created life and could be used to aid healing. Stiles used the shower to make some of his bruises go away, but decided to keep them to keep himself alert for a while. He did use the shower to make his welts disappear, though.

His abilities were stronger now that he knew what he was doing and why he was doing it and not just making things up as he went along. Gabbi though he was tough before, she would have a huge surprise waiting for her when she tried to kill him next.

Not a lot changed for Stiles now that he and Derek were dating, they still acted the same around each other. They were still sarcastic and Derek still seemed almost out of reach a lot of the time. The only difference was that now Stiles could reach out and interlock his fingers with Derek's. He could pull him in for a kiss because Stiles and Derek were close to the same height and they could even kick Scott out if they wanted to for an hour or two.

Scott complained because he definitely didn't want that image in his head and wasn't having to kiss him enough to please keep him out of Stiles's sex life? Stiles just laughed and told him no, that if he wanted to he would go into great detail on how Derek treated him when Scott wasn't around. Scott gagged and threw a book at Stiles. It didn't meet its mark however and flew off in the other direction.

"Cheating!" Scott called out.

Stiles replied with a triumphant, "HOW'S IT FEEL?" To which Scott fell over laughing.

Stiles dad did not find out about Derek from Stiles, well, not technically. He wasn't supposed to find out until Stiles was fifty and he wasn't able to lift or hold a gun anymore from senility and old age. Stiles was a little cocky and by a little cocky Stiles meant he was kind of a huge ass and Sheriff Stilinski happened to be on patrol in the exact part of the city Stiles and Derek had decided to see a movie, but didn't make it inside for.

Thankfully, his dad didn't interrupt them, but held it in until Stiles got home and he was pretty much forbidden from seeing Derek again until he went and got tested for STDs and promised to remain asexually active until he was dead.

He was clean though and his dad couldn't find a reason to complain except for the fact that Derek was twenty-four and Stiles was seventeen, but he didn't interfere in their relationship. Just let it be known that Sheriff Stilinski did not condone a twenty-four year old ravaging a seventeen year old. Especially not in a parking lot.

Things were kind of tense for him and his dad for a few days but eventually they went back to normal and Stiles might have even been relieved that he didn't have to hide Derek from his dad. He wasn't going to push his luck by having Derek over for dinner as much as he'd had Danny over, but at least he could say he was going to spend time with Derek now and not feel guilty about it.

Lydia wasn't upset with him getting into a relationship again or about breaking up with Danny; she understood now everything that Stiles had been trying to tell her the whole time. She didn't let him forget that she had been right about Danny though and that they did make a pretty good pair while they lasted. Stiles couldn't disagree with her. Jackson was angry over it even though Danny and Stiles still saw each other and even had lunch together sometimes, but Danny just said it was because Jackson was protective over him. When his last boyfriend broke up Danny had to physically keep Jackson from fighting him. Danny was happy for Stiles, though.

Derek was all about Stiles now, it was everything that he did, and all of it was for Stiles. Partially because he was completely wrapped around Stiles's finger, but mostly it was because he had no idea when Gabbi was going to attack again, so he wanted to be around Stiles as much as possible. He was afraid he would have to kill her to get her to stop, but if that's what it took, then that was what he would do. So he made sure that he had Stiles's favorite soda in stock all the time. He made sure to tape Supernatural and to keep the recordings saved so Stiles would come over to watch it with him and more than just one night a week. He made sure to text Stiles as often as he could when he had actual reason to do so. He didn't just bombard Stiles with texts saying things like "Are you alive still?" because he didn't want Stiles to think he was a freak.

No, he just made sure that every morning he didn't wake up next to Stiles to send him a good morning text, and every once in a while had him meet him in the parking lot of his school so that he could take Stiles to a burger bar for lunch. He'd leave presents on Stiles's window sill like a Batman figurine he'd saw in a store window downtown and thought Stiles might like. Stiles loved it and kept it on his nightstand away from his other comic book paraphernalia.

One morning Stiles woke up in Derek's bed feeling like complete crap. His body felt sore and he was tired and groggy. His throat was swollen and he was congested and it was just an all-around unpleasant feeling. Stiles hated being sick, sure it meant he got to miss school and stuff, but he could just skip school and say he was sick he didn't actually enjoy being sick. He tried to pretend that he wasn't at first. Mind over matter, right? If he believed he wasn't sick then he wouldn't be sick.

Derek was still asleep when Stiles tried to climb out of bed to get ready for the day, but the older man pulled him back as he tried to climb out, pulling him close and covering them with more blanket.

"Don't go," Derek said groggily, "Stay. Sleep," He commanded, clearing his throat.

"You know you have dog breath in the morning," Stiles poked, "It's not really attractive at all it kind makes me want to puke all over your bed." Stiles pried himself free from Derek and stumbled weakly into the kitchen sitting down to make a pot of coffee. He poured two cups and he'd just picked his up when Derek came out of his room still in just his boxers and picked up his cup. "Wow do you work out or something?" Stiles asked sarcastically. Derek took one long gulp of his coffee before setting it down and he walked over to Stiles and took his cup out of his hands and set it on the counter.

Derek kissed him briefly, hands on Stiles's hips before pulling away and giving him and odd look. He leaned forward and sniffed Stiles which was kind of strange, but hey, who could complain when you're dating a werewolf?

"You're sick," Derek said definitively. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. God damn werewolves with their stupid super noses was Stiles ever going to catch a break? The answer was apparently...yes? "Good thing I don't get sick," Derek continued as he kissed Stiles's neck.

Stiles closed his eyes and let Derek kiss him, but pushed away after he let out a small moan. No. No no no. He had things to do; he had school, then magic stuff with Deaton. He couldn't miss his life just cause he was sick and Derek was horny there were important things he needed to be doing.

Stiles finished drinking his coffee and Derek kept bugging him and trying to get him back into bed the entire time Stiles was getting ready, it proved especially difficult when Stiles was trying to change out of the sweatpants he'd slept in and Derek had decided that fingers were for exploring. He huffed as he tucked his now stiff situation into his jeans and glared at the grinning Derek sitting on the bed in nothing but his boxers. Stiles went over and kissed Derek goodbye as he finished buttoning up his shirt.

The coffee gave him some energy but that didn't stop his eyes from drooping or keep him from yawning the entire car trip to school. Scott noticed that Stiles was sick just moments after they were in class together.

"Dude, are you alright?" Scott asked, sitting behind Stiles. Stiles turned and nodded slightly, but his eyes were almost shut and his smile was more of a grimace. "You smell sick."

"Dude, that sounds really weird when you say it like that," Stiles told him, "Yeah, I'm sick, but it's okay. I'll be fine." He made it through most of the day, but things started going wrong later. He was drinking a bottle of water at lunch when he remembered that, hey, he could make all of this go away with a little magic. He poured some of the water into his hand and ran it over his head, the beads dripped down his neck and face as he focused on feeling better. Glass shattered on three of the windows and Stiles jumped back and held up his ringed hand thinking that it was Gabbi and her pack, but it wasn't. The windows had shattered of their own accord and Stiles didn't feel any better.

In fact, he felt worse. His head swam and there was a ringing in his ears. He was able to send a text to Derek asking him to come pick him up, but he fell asleep against Scott waiting out front for him. He leaned the seat as far back as it would go in Derek's car and fell asleep holding his hand. He woke up as they pulled in to the apartment complex feeling a little more like staying awake, but still feeling just plain gross all around.

"I'm gonna die," Stiles moaned as he climbed out of the Camaro and walked alongside Derek, leaning heavily against him. "Gabbi attacked using biological warfare, I'm still human so I still get sick, but since you're immune to the black plague there's nothing for you to do, but watch me die. It's genius, why didn't she think of this sooner?"

"You're not gonna die, Stiles," Derek said, "You're just sick; it's not a big deal." They were at Derek's door and Stiles leaned against the wall while Derek unlocked it. Once inside he proceeded to lie down right on the floor in the living room. Derek sighed and bent down to scoop him into his arms.

"Leave me to die, you don't have to watch this," Stiles groaned. Derek carried him all the way back to him room, "You're like my knight in shining armor, but a lot less clean," which earned him an unceremonious dump, face down, on the bed while Derek pulled off his shoes and jeans. "I worked so hard to get dressed this morning, too," Stiles said. Derek rolled him over and covered him up.

"I'll bring you some water," Derek said and Stiles told him no, because water made him blow things up now. Confused, Derek complied and brought him a glass of juice instead. It was much less dangerous that way, Stiles reassured him. Now he definitely couldn't blow things up. "Get some sleep," Derek said sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I can't," Stiles replied. So Derek kicked off his own shoes and took off his own jeans and crawled in next to Stiles. They turned on the TV and Stiles lay on Derek's chest sniffling and cozy for a few hours until he was drowsy enough to close his eyes, his body warm and toasty.

When he woke up again he was shivering even though Derek was there and he was under the covers. The TV was still on and he curled tighter against Derek. Derek woke up and pulled the blankets tighter around them and slowly over the course of a few minutes the shivering went away and Stiles resigned to watching TV again. Derek stood up once to go make them something to eat and the chills came back. Stiles shivered furiously under the blankets until a pressure in the back of his throat appeared. He waited for a few seconds longer before getting up and running into the bathroom.

Derek found him there, on his knees in front of the toilet with his head on his arms. "Come on, I made soup," Derek said, picking Stiles up and making him rinse out his mouth and drink a glass of actual water, luckily nothing blew up.

Stiles made sure that Derek knew exactly how grateful he was that he was taking care of him like this by letting him know that he couldn't have asked for a more sour nursemaid, or, gee you'd think that a hospice nurse would try to make Stiles more comfortable before his passing. Where did Derek go to nursing school? Did the hospital that Derek left throw a fit when he did leave because if not then they definitely should have? Also, he was possibly the best boyfriend that anyone could have and he was definitely getting a lot of sex as a thank you gift once this was all over.

And possibly a blow job.

At some point Stiles relocated to the living room and was sipping a mug of broth that Derek had given him because he didn't like to be sick in one place for too long. Besides he was feeling a lot better, not one-hundred percent, more like thirty percent. At least he could sit up and walk around on his own and he hadn't thrown up in a couple hours.

Stiles apologized if he was annoying Derek by being around too much, but Derek just pulled him over to his side of the couch to cuddle, which sick Stiles was totally up for cuddling right now that was definitely on the top of his list. Right after finishing this broth.

When Stiles was probably around seventy percent better he decided to go back to school. He could move around without getting breathless and he wasn't tired anymore, but he still had a sore throat and he was still congested. He'd walked all the way out to the parking building before heading back to ask for a ride because his jeep was still at school. Derek was standing outside, leaning on his front door laughing at Stiles when he came back.

"Yeah, whatever," Stiles said, before he even asked for a ride, "I'm breaking up with you, take me to school, you're positively the worst boyfriend ever."

"Well, then I guess you're not getting a ride from me," Derek replied.

"No, wait come back I forgive you," Stiles said, grabbing onto Derek's arm, "Take me back please I didn't mean to be so cruel." Derek drove him to school and dropped him off in front of Scott.

"Just so you know I still think it's completely weird that you're dating Derek now," Scott told him and Stiles just stared at him expressionless, "I totally didn't see that coming at all, you know, it's freakier than Gerard."

"I hate you," Stiles said before walking in the opposite direction. Scott caught up with him and Stiles told him that Deaton said when he got sick he had less control over his magic and that was why the windows in the lunchroom shattered. So he had to be very careful now that he was back at school because he wasn't completely better yet. If Gabbi, Lana and Luna decided to show up then Stiles wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them so Scott needed to be one-hundred and fifty percent alert and attentive and if anything bad happened to Stiles, well, Stiles had made Derek promise to torture Scott.

"Torture me how?" Scott asked, smiling that his best friend was back. It'd been a long couple days without him.

"Sex tapes," Stiles said.

"Stiles!" Scott said to Stiles laughing at him. Scott smacked him on the back of the head.

"Hey, that’s not fair I can't use magic to protect myself!" Stiles complained.

"How's it feel?" Scott asked before running off to their first class. Stiles made sure to drop his backpack right on Scott's foot in the center aisle when he sat down in front of him.

"Whoops, sorry. Didn't see you there," Stiles said before facing the front.

"You're the worst friend I've ever had," Scott whispered to him. Stiles may have whispered back that if he didn't want to have a visual imprint of exactly how good of a friend Stiles was to Derek he probably shouldn't turn on his computer when he got home. Scott shut up after that.

But there were no attacks from any evil beings supernatural or otherwise and it only took another night of sleep for Stiles to start feeling back to his one-hundred percent healthy self again. He slept at home that night since he hadn't been home in a few days and had a nice long father to son talk about responsibility and protection and Stiles was pretty sure that this was hell and that actually did die from the sickness and he was now in hell.

His dad was just concerned about Stiles staying over at Derek's so often and Stiles could understand that, but that didn't mean he had to voice his concern in the most awkward situation a boy and his father would ever be in besides the first time his father caught him masturbating or probably the time when Jackson filed a restraining order against them for kidnapping him.

Yeah this wasn't as awkward as that.

Lydia and him were hanging out again, but he wasn't sure if it was because he was her new gay best friend or if were because she wanted to hear all the dirty details about Derek or if it was because she genuinely wanted to spend time with him and from Stiles's point of view the only thing he would be okay with was the last one, but Lydia was Lydia. It didn't stop her from asking Stiles to try and get a picture of Derek in the shower and send it to her.

Which he didn't do.

That was for no one's eyes, but his.

Derek was starting to get concerned about what was taking Gabbi so long to make a move, but Stiles didn't care. He was happy with the way things were right now. He was doing good in school and so was Scott, thank god. He had a boyfriend right out of an eighties fantasy movie. He was doing awesome useless crap with his magic. What more could a guy want?

But no, Deaton agreed with Derek about how it should be worrying that Gabbi hadn't done anything. It'd been almost two months. Stiles couldn't be bothered with their nonsense though because Spring Break was coming up fast and he and Scott were planning a camping trip into the mountains. Jackson's family owned a cottage on a lake and Lydia volunteered it for them, to Jackson's distaste.

Who could focus on possible demented werewolves with something like that coming up and Stiles tried to console Derek by talking of taking him to the wild to set him free, where he belonged and maybe he could find a nice wolf pack to take him in and he could hunt deer for the rest of his merry little life.

His words didn't distract Derek though and Derek warned them all to try and keep as quiet about their Spring break trip as possible because he was afraid that Gabbi might use it as the perfect opportunity to attack. Stiles didn't relent on his attempts to lighten him up though. They were only a few days away and Derek and Stiles were out shopping for the trip when Stiles tried to convince him that it was a good idea.

"You know while we're out there, there's going to be so much forest to get lost in," Stiles said, throwing a bag of candy into the already half-full shopping cart. It was going to take a lot of food to feed seven teenagers and Derek. Chris Argent would be there, but he would be at another cottage nearby. It was the only way they could all get permission to go.

"Exactly and that means there's plenty of places for Gabbi to hide, Stiles, I'm not-" Derek started, but Stiles interrupted him with a loud shushing noise, tossing an extra bag of marshmallows into the cart. Derek plucked them out and set them back on the shelf. Apparently seven bags of marshmallows was 'too many' and they didn't even need three, but Derek obviously underestimated Stiles's ability to shove marshmallows down his throat.

"No, Derek, I don't think you understand," Stiles said, "What I'm saying is there will be so much forest for you and me to get lost in, together, possibly for several hours and who knows what could happen while we're out there in the forest alone, and cold, with only each other for warmth." Derek was silent as he tossed several kinds of lunch meat into the cart. "You'll have to keep me warm of course and you know skin on skin contact is the best way to transfer warmth so that means-"

"Stiles stop talking and help me finish shopping so we can go home," Derek said.

"Sorry, I was just trying to get you excited for the trip I just really want you to be as excited as I am," Stiles said. He was afraid he'd made his boyfriend angry which made him sad. He knew that Derek was just trying to keep him safe and he was grateful, he was more than grateful. He just didn't think Gabbi posed much of a threat anymore. He really hoped that Derek wasn't mad at him and that he wanted to go because if either of those things were true then he wasn't sure if he would want to go either which was just disappointing altogether. "Are you alright?" Stiles asked. Derek leaned over to whisper in Stiles's ear.

"I said stop talking and help me finish shopping so we can go home," Derek started, "Because once we get home I'm going to fuck you until you pass out." That was definitely great motivation for Stiles to hurry up with the shopping. They filled the cart and packed everything away in Derek's car. They didn't even unload before they were rushing inside and Derek had Stiles pressed up against the wall. Their hands grasping at layers of clothing until everything was gone.

It was weird going back outside later to unload and shove everything somewhere that it would fit, but at least Stiles was buzzing with a pleasant euphoria and a few bruises to thank for it.


	8. Camping

The car ride was going to be six hours of driving with Scott, Derek and Isaac in Stiles' jeep. The ride was going to be great, Stiles thought to himself, because it meant six hours of endless opportunities to make Scott squirm in his seat and ideally puke out the window. The first hour was loud and rustly and Scott was on the phone for part of the time with the other car and Derek grumbled about being stuck in a car with them.

Stiles put on a radio station that he liked and Isaac leaned over the barrier a few songs later to change it to something else. Scott did the same thing and Stiles could see that Derek was getting annoyed by their constant leaning forward and changing so he reached over and held his hand. Scott and Isaac talked lacrosse and Derek and Stiles talked eating habits.

"I'm just saying, Derek, it can't hurt to throw a few vegetables onto your plate," Stiles insisted.

"I don't need to watch my health. I’m immune to everything," Derek replied. Stiles couldn't argue with that, but, hey, who was to say that eating an extra carrot or two wouldn't make him even stronger than he was now? There weren't a lot of healthy anything in their jeep, but Lydia and Allison had been sure to buy some food for people who cared about themselves and their health. Stiles had started taking multivitamins and gargling with salt water to help raise his immunity to disease so that he couldn't get sick and be left helpless.

They pulled into a restaurant after two hours and had to wait around for ten minutes for Jackson to catch up with everybody else. Stiles jumped back and forth on his toes nervously, hands thrust deep into his pockets standing outside waiting. This would be the first time that Danny and Derek had any interaction since that time Stiles told Danny his name was Miguel and it was definitely going to be one-hundred times more weird due to the fact that Stiles and Danny had dated and now Stiles and Derek were dating.

Jackson pulled in and Stiles smiled and waved, getting gleeful waves back from the girls and a middle finger from Jackson.

Danny climbed out and waved, too. "Hey, Miguel," he called out. Derek smiled at first, but then he briefly looked confused before rounding on Stiles who was actually laughing leaning against the hood of his car.

"You didn't tell him?" Derek accused him and Stiles stopped laughing long enough to tell Derek that of course he told him. Danny was just making a joke. Derek's finger dropped and he kind of just stood there with this blank expression on his face while Danny and Stiles busted up together. Everyone else stood around looking thoroughly confused and they went inside.

They had to stand in line for a little while and while they were waiting, a small child took the opportunity to come speeding around the corner and smacking right into Derek, falling back onto the ground. He was probably around five or six years old, as far as Stiles could tell and he looked almost ready to cry. He was about to rush over and tell him not to and pick him up, but Derek did it first.

"Hey, little man," Derek said lifting him up, "You all right, there, big guy?" The kid nodded at Derek, rubbing one of his eyes with his hand. Derek smiled up at Stiles and tugged on the red hoody the kid was wearing.

"You got good taste in sweaters there, kid," Stiles said, tugging on his own red hoody. The kid smiled and nodded at Stiles, blushing. It was adorable how shy the kid was acting and Stiles was about ready to squish the living hell out of Derek.

"Where are your parents at?" Derek asked the boy, and the boy shrugged. "Come on, I'll walk around with you until we find them, alright?" The boy beamed at Derek and Derek took his hand. Stiles went with them and they walked around for about five minutes before the boy tugged on Derek's hand and pointed out his parents sitting in a booth. The mother was looking around, worried, wringing her hands together and running her fingers through her hair. The father was talking to a waiter in what seemed to be a very upset manner.

"Mommy!" The boy called out and she immediately turned to look at him. Pure, unadulterated relief flooded her whole body as she came to scoop him up. Derek explained what happened and she thanked them both, hugging them before returning to her booth with the boy. The father came over to thank them as well and shook both their hands before returning to his family. The kid beamed at Derek and Stiles from the table and waved to them. They waved back before returning to the others.

"I hope you know that I am literally dying inside over how good you were with that little boy just now," Stiles said walking with Derek, the others had been seated and they were following the host to where they were already sitting. "I was pretty much squealing with joy that whole time. I love kids, you don't even know, and it makes me so happy that you love kids and just come here." Stiles stopped Derek and pulled his head down for a long kiss. "You're amazing, you know that? Completely and utterly amazing and heart stopping and you have the best face and the best abs and the best-"

"Stiles," Derek warned, hoping he wasn't about to say what he thought he was about to say.

"-heart and you mean a lot to me and I appreciate everything about you, I just want you to know that. I appreciate everything about you, especially your abs. I mean really, Derek?" Stiles asked and they were walking again as Derek shook his head, "Have you tried chopping vegetables with those things? I mean I know you have the claws, but I'm sure you could do some pretty decent damage just with your abs."

"You ruin every good moment by talking, Stiles," Derek said, "But I love you for it." They slid into the open spots at their table and Stiles reached over to take Derek's hand in his and kiss the back of it before they opened their menus. Stiles kept talking behind their menus.

"Want to buy one of the sweetheart platters? We can feed each other bites of food and kiss each other on the nose and giggling and stuff," Stiles said, browsing the menu. He could practically feel the leer coming from Derek's direction. He clearly didn't know how to be a sickeningly cute couple. Stiles would just have to show him.

Allison and Scott were talking and were even sitting next to each other. It was probably the widest and most genuine smile that Stiles had seen on Scott's face in the longest time. Allison's dad was a little more forgiving and had loosened the ropes around Allison a little more once Scott and Stiles saved her from the warehouse. Stiles was mostly just grateful that Allison hadn't retreated further back into her anti-werewolf-and-all-things-related shell. That meant Scott could talk to her again and even if they didn't start going out for a while at least he would be happy. Stiles liked when Scott was happy.

"Can't I get a burger?" Derek complained flipping the menu over and over again. At Derek's mention Scott looked up and then, puzzled, began inspecting his own menu for signs of a hamburger nestled somewhere in there.

"It's breakfast, Derek, we order breakfast things, like toast," Stiles explained to him, speaking slowly so that Derek understood everything that he said. "Just so you're aware of the plan I'm going to get a hot chocolate and let the foam get on my lip and then you have to say something along the lines of 'Stiles, you've got something on that unbelievable handsome face of yours,' to which I'll reply, 'Where?' and at that point you will take my face in your hand and pull me slowly forwards whisper, 'here' and lick the foam off of my lip, is that clear?" Allison and Lydia were giggling uncontrollably while Danny and Isaac snorted, staring at the table. Jackson looked like he wanted to throw up and Scott just had the most puzzled expression on his face like he had suddenly forgotten how to breathe and think at the same time.

"No," Derek said without looking up from his menu.

"You're ruining all the plans I had for this weekend, Derek," Stiles informed him and Derek snorted. "I'd ask if you wanted to share a bed this weekend, but apparently you're against making your boyfriend happy so I'll count that off of my Christmas list."

"Stiles Christmas was two months ago."

"I am an early list giver."

"He's not lying," Scott input and that was when Derek realized that no one else was talking so that they could all listen while Stiles attempted to embarrass the crap out of him with his friends. It was silent for a few moments while Derek just stared at Scott and suddenly the rest of the table had things to talk about, go figure.

Their food came and went and Stiles made several attempts at being a ridiculously cute couple, all to no avail. Derek left his funny bone at home, apparently and when they were back on the road Stiles loudly vocalized his complaints.

"You could have at least put whipped cream on my nose or something," Stiles said and Derek shook his head at him, "No, I'm serious how long do you think it would've taken for Scott to puke his guts up everywhere if we had been ridiculously adorable? It only took him and Allison five minutes when they were dating to make me want to kill myself although it wasn't from cuteness it was from how sick I was hearing the name Allison."

"Hey!" Scott complained from the back seat. Stiles and Isaac sniggered while Scott pouted. Derek sat in the front seat, staring out the window. He hadn't thought that it would be a good idea at first to go on a vacation with a bunch of teenagers, but still hadn't ruled a verdict on it. He was there for Stiles and that was what was important.

Halfway to the campsite they pulled over and Derek switched places with Stiles so that he wouldn't be as tempted to reach back and rip Scott's head off his body. They filled up on gas and were on their way again. This half of the trip was spent mostly in silence only broken when Stiles asked for some snacks to be passed forward to the front seat.

Derek glanced over at Stiles several times while driving, not sure to be worried by the silence or not. It wasn't like Stiles to pass up the opportunity to fill the void, but decided against saying anything in front of Scott and Isaac in case it was something he'd done.

Stiles, on the other hand, was silent not because of anything that Derek had done, but because he was finally taking the time to reflect on everything. He had already accepted that he was madly, insanely head-over heels for Derek. Had time to think of everything that Derek had done for him and his friends, for his family. For the town. He even attempted to make life better for people like Isaac, Erica and Boyd, but outside sources ruined everything for him. Derek wasn't the selfish, stuck up person that others assumed he was. Everything he did, while holding up a stony outward appearance, was for the sake of others.

And recently everything he had done had been for Stiles especially. He could never express in words or kindness or even sex, considering how much Stiles joked about it, to pay back Derek. Then after all the selfless acts that Derek did, protecting him, saving him, loving him, Stiles also got to have Derek for himself. Warmth spread through his body and he smiled widely out the window. There was nothing that could keep him down with Derek by his side. Gabbi could try, she could even come close, but in the end there would be nothing keeping him and Derek from overcoming it together. Out of nowhere Stiles felt an unbelievable lust for Derek, well, not out of nowhere since he always felt an unbelievable lust for Derek, but usually he'd keep it mellowed down. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, stealing glances at Derek out of the corner of his eye, hoping they'd make eye contact and he could communicate his sudden desire to stop in the middle of the freeway, kick Scott and Isaac out of the backseat and make better use of it. Though, they probably wouldn't fit back there, it'd be worth it.

Scott and the others could probably help, he guessed. They had to stop one more time at a gas station for bathroom breaks and Derek topped off Stiles gas tank even though they'd just filled it about an hour and a half back. Stiles asked Derek to follow him while everyone was distracted with something or the other. Jackson and Danny were inside buying drinks. Stiles and Isaac were arguing about video games and Lydia and Allison were in the bathroom and probably would be for a few more minutes.

Around the corner, away from other eyes Derek asked if everything was okay, but wasn't met with words. Stiles pushed him up against the wall, kissing him ferociously, his hands clenched in fists on the front of Derek's shirt. Derek was surprised, but immediately responded, placing one hand on the small of Stiles’ back and the other on his hip. Their teeth scraped together in the heat of the moment and finally Stiles pulled away, out of breath.

"What was that for?" Derek asked, a bemused sparkle in his eye.

"I've been wanted to kiss you all day, but we haven't been able to," Stiles responded and he leaned in to kiss him again, but just quickly this time. He already knew that he'd gotten some stubble burn just now and he could feel his lips swollen just slightly more than usual. It would be no secret that they'd just run off for a quick make out, but Stiles didn't care. His stomach for Derek hadn't settled yet and he was waiting for the right time, at the cabin, in the middle of the night when they could sneak off to the woods and satisfy this burning lust. They pulled up at the cabin quickly after leaving the second gas station. Hallelujah, Stiles thought to himself, hopping out and stretching to help unload.

His help wasn't really necessary with literally everyone else being a werewolf and capable of carrying the cars in with one hand. The "cabin" wasn't so much of a cabin as it was a small house. Apparently small houses were just cottage material to Jackson's family. It was one-story, with a completely unnecessary picket fence. The windows were large and crystal clear, showing the warm and well-furnished living room inside. Stiles dropped off his and Derek's bags and sleeping bags in the room that Jackson sent them to. There was a full queen sized bed inside and Stiles felt kind of annoyed that they brought sleeping bags. It was supposed to be a log cabin, one room with a giant fireplace and a leather couch. Some deer heads mounted on the walls. The closest thing to wildlife that was inside the house were the plastic plants placed around windowsills. Whatever, he wouldn't let it bother him.

It was mid-afternoon and they had the rest of the day after unloading and organizing and making sure everyone was where they needed to be and comfortable to do whatever they wanted. No one really thought about what they were going to do for that first day so they lounged around inside. Talking and laughing with each other, being comfortable and without fear for the first time in a long time. Stiles couldn't remember the last time that all of them had been together, especially with Derek there and they hadn't been discussing possible plots of or how to take down some monster or villain. Their whole lives had been centered around chaos, terror, and death for over two years now and Stiles was relieved at the break they were getting from it.

Chris Argent stopped by when they were getting ready to go set up a fire and cook some dinner. He would be out for the rest of night and was staying not far away at another cabin, which Stiles now doubted was a legitimate cabin. His home in Beacon Hills was closer to a cabin than the house they were staying in. Cell reception was weird out here, but Allison knew how to use a radio and they had portables with them and back at the house. If they needed anything he could be there in just five to ten minutes.

He wondered why Christ Argent was staying so far away, but dismissed it with how much trouble could a bunch of supernatural teenagers who had only tried killing each other a few times actually get into out in the middle of the mountains.

"Hey, Stiles," It was Lydia. She'd changed into something that he'd expect to see Allison in. "I can see things are going well with you and Derek."

"How can you tell?" Stiles asked, out of curiosity. Things were great between him and Derek, excellent.

"You can't keep your eyes off him and you've got this look in your eye like you want to eat him alive," She said, "But do me a favor while we're out here, please."

"What is it?" He could do Lydia a favor, but considering the subject they were on he wanted to hear it before he agreed to anything. She might make him wear designer hiking boots or something otherwise.

"Try to keep the sex down to a minimum please," She asked, "For Danny's sake, not my own. I, personally, don't care if you wanted to screw like rabbits the whole time we're here, but I can see that Danny still has feelings for you."

Stiles sighed and looked over at Danny, distracted with Allison. If you looked at it in a couple’s perspective, they were all paired off. Jackson and Lydia, Stiles and Derek, and hopefully Allison and Scott were fixing things. Isaac and Danny weren't, but Isaac hadn't dated anyone who was there and was also heterosexual as far as Stiles knew. Danny and Stiles had been close. "He can't keep his eyes off you. I've caught him looking at you at least a dozen times. I'm not saying don't have fun with your boyfriend, just try to make this as easy for Danny as you can."

Stiles nodded, agreeing with her. He wasn't sure how much any of the others had heard, how much Derek heard or if they were even paying attention. Derek probably heard everything because they'd said his name and he looked over. Derek was staring at him and Stiles smiled at him. Derek smiled back.

"You're funny lookin’," Stiles said breaking the moment. Derek immediately scowled, but Stiles went over and sat next to him, settling into his body as Derek put an arm around his shoulders. "You're not worried are you?"

"About Danny? No. I know you'd never do anything to hurt either one of us," Derek said, pressing his lips to the top of his head. Stiles hadn't cut his hair in a while and it was growing out, longer than usual. Derek liked it, but Stiles didn't like having hair he actually had to do something with. He just wanted another excuse to be lazy.

"I wasn't talking about Danny, Freak," Stiles said, "I was talking about Gabbi.” The other wolves kept acting like nothing was happening, but there was a noticeable shift or glance from all three of them at the mention of Gabbi. The only one there who didn't know about anything was Danny.

"I am, but I'm always going to be until she's dead," Derek said, "But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy my time here with everyone. With you." Derek said and he leaned down, until his lips were brushing Stiles’ ear. Stiles glanced over at Danny and saw him look away quickly. Guilt welled up in his stomach, but was immediately washed away when Derek started to whisper in his ear, "And I'm really looking forward to enjoying my time with you."

So, he would try to keep Lydia's favor as best he could, but let's face it. He was a boy, Derek was a boy, they had the same boy needs and Danny would get over him. It was harsh, but Stiles and Danny weren't together anymore. He could honestly say that he wouldn't expect Danny to hold himself off his boyfriend to make Stiles more comfortable. It's not like you can control desire and want, they're things that just are.

They went outside and Derek demonstrated his extraordinary cooking abilities that he'd shared with Stiles so many times by barbecuing for them. The verdict was unanimous, Derek was a gift sent from the heavens and if he weren't so scary looking could have had a great career as a chef. The scary looking comment was made by Stiles.

It felt like it got darker faster than normal and soon they were all sitting around their campfire. Stiles felt the warm glow on the surface of his skin tingling and somewhere within. He understood that he'd connected with the large anchor of spell energy and cast glances into the trees around him. He hadn't learned too many spells, just your basics and how to create protective wards, but he didn't know if it was necessary. If Derek heard him whispering an incantation he'd think something was wrong, that something had gone wrong and he would never be able to relax and enjoy the week. Stiles decided against it, telling himself not to get stressed out about this now.

Stiles and Derek were sitting on opposite sides of the campfire from each other, it was mostly so Stiles could taunt him over the fire. Stiles was sitting next to Scott, which was a good choice in seating until Allison had come and sit on the other side of Stiles. Neither of them had any tact whatsoever, apparently. Scott's Allison senses tingled and they immediately became absorbed in each other over Stiles. It was like the universe had destined him to be the awkward third wheel for the rest of his life.

Derek was laughing at him every time that they made eye contact and Stiles’ expression was one of a 'kill me now' mindset. He was happy for his friends, he really was, but only if they left him out of it completely. Derek made a face at him before turning to have a conversation with Lydia. Stiles turned to Allison and whispered to her to make sure Derek couldn't hear what he was about to tell Scott. Derek looked up at the sound of his name, but Allison, a confused expression on her face, tossed a wet log into the fire which began to sizzle and crackle loudly. Stiles turned to Scott and barely breathed the words into his ear as quietly as he possibly could. He turned back to see Derek looking at him with his eyebrows pushed together. Stiles shrugged with a bemused smirk on his face. He stood and walked over and sat next to Derek who asked him what that had been about, but Stiles wouldn't tell.

"I can make you tell me," Derek said, getting a glint in his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find out any second now Derek," Stiles responded.

"What?" And no sooner had the word escaped his lips did three boys shot past and tackled Derek to the ground. Stiles joined the pile by sitting on Derek's legs. "Stiles!" Derek called out from underneath the puppy pile.

"I assure you I had nothing to do with this, Derek," Stiles responded. The others were laughing and Scott was doing more than his fair share by smiling as he rubbed his cheek against Derek's whose expression was one of 'I'm going to kill all of you.'

They unpiled Derek, and Stiles gave him a hand up. They stood there away from the circle of friends who had taken their places back by the fire and Stiles gave him a quick kiss on the mouth before they walked back hand in hand. Sitting next to each other this time.

Later, they were all looking up, staring at the sky and listened as Lydia named all of the constellations that she could find, which was all of them. Stiles could stare at the sky forever. He ran inside unexpectedly without saying anything to anyone and came out with too many sleeping bags to carry. He unzipped them all and laid them out side by side and quickly lay down on his back so that he could stare up at them easier. The others got the message and joined him. Lydia kept talking, telling stories of great heroes and heroines, of wars and conquerors. Gods and goddesses. It was calming. Everything was so peaceful out here, there was nothing to worry about, not school or work or death. Derek was lying next to them, their fingers barely curled together in between them. Stiles looked over at him and studied his face. The sharp lines of his jaw and nose, the way the hollows of his eyes dipped in and turned into these beautiful green things. His stubble and the shape of his lips.

Derek must've felt him staring because he looked over too and they just looked at each other for the longest time while Lydia talked. Eventually it got cold and Stiles took his place under Derek's arm, pressed into the side of his body. One arm reaching across and around, the other curled underneath Derek's arm, fingers pressed into his shoulder blade.

Lydia had stopped talking and they were all silent. Listening to the crickets chirping and the wind rustling through the trees. A squirrel calling out every now and then mixed in with the occasional flapping of wings or bird crying out. They made their way inside, one by one or in pairs, taking their sleeping bags that Stiles had dragged out. The fire had died out and was now a pile of bright red embers that would burn through the rest of the night. Stiles was standing there next to the pit and waiting for Derek to follow him inside. Danny had been the first to retire so he took the opportunity to play with the glow of embers, twirling them and making fire dance up again here and there. Derek came up and put an arm around his shoulders, Stiles’ arm automatically catching around his waist and they walked inside into their room where they slept without sex or even kissing, just holding each other impossibly tight, legs tossed between each other’s.

Stiles thanked the universe for Derek then, as he had plenty of times earlier that day. Derek was a gift. Stiles’ gift.


	9. Destruction

Waking up the next morning was the best Stiles had felt in a long time. His head was still perfectly nestled under Derek's chin, his arms still circled around Derek's torso and his legs still in between Derek's. Derek was still asleep and Stiles lifted his neck to kiss Derek before settling back down into the cuddle. The sun had just started to rise when Stiles had woken up and he lay there listening to Derek's heart and lungs until it's light filled the room completely. That was when he felt Derek wake up slowly. His heart beat increased just slightly and his breath got shorter and right after, Derek stretched his neck and tightened his arms around Stiles even more before yawning.

"Morning, Dragon breath," Stiles said, smiling into Derek's neck. He was pretty sure that he couldn't get stubble burn from cuddling, but you know anything could happen.

"You're one to talk," Derek said, his voice crackling and deep with sleep. Stiles breathed out all over Derek's face and he moved his head away, pushing Stiles off the bed.

"Hey!" Stiles complained from the floor.

"You're fault," Derek explained. They crawled out and joined the others in getting ready for the day.

"Gabbi, let's just kill him and make it quick, we can't hold him for long no matter what we do," Lana tried reasoning with her. They were as close to the cabin as they dared to be, which was a few miles away, up higher on the mountain. They could barely see the cabin even with their eyesight sharpened by their wolf form. Gabbi was in a rage that she hadn't killed them all yet. Dragging Luna and Lana with her when they found out the idiots' plans for Spring break. Camping in the forest? Hours away from their hometown? It was too easy. Her every breath was a deep growl and she was barely able to hold back her shift into the alpha form.

They'd be able to kill them and the authorities would blame it on a brutal animal attack. This time, though, Gabbi wasn't just targeting Derek and Stiles. This time, she would slaughter the whole pack.

"Either way we have to take out Stiles first," Luna said, lounging on a nearby boulder. "If we don't and he notices us then we're toast."

"We'll figure it out," Gabbi said, "They're out here with a bunch of friends all locked up in one little house. No doubt Stiles and Derek will want some privacy eventually, and when they do we'll tear their spines from their bodies." She curled her claws into a fist tight enough to rip into her palms. Blood dripped from her hands and landed on the damp leaves on the ground. "Then we can pick the rest of them off for sport."

"When we go to kill Stiles," Lana started, "We can't wait around for you to make your move if you don't have one to make."

"Your point?" Gabbi asked, directing her bright red gaze on the girl whose wolf eyes burned blue. Lana met her gaze without flinching.

"If there's an opening we'll have to take it," She said, "We can't afford for him to use his magic. He's stronger now, knows more about what he's doing." Gabbi turned back and followed the specks moving from the cabin. Lana was right. There was a chance it wouldn't be her pleasure taking the breath from Stiles's lungs.

"Fine," Gabbi said upset by the realization, "Kill him if you can." They could still move faster than Stiles, were stronger than Stiles, smarter than Stiles. He had magic, but he didn't have their supernatural reflexes and response time. "Just don't do anything stupid."

The cabin got ready for the day. That day's plan was to hike to the nearby lake and if it was warm enough they'd spend the morning and afternoon lounging around and swimming, they'd go back to the cabin by evening and lounge around there for the rest of the night. It was a thrilling day filled with lounging which is what Stiles did best. After brushing his teeth he breathed on Derek's face again asking if it was better. Derek approved.

The hike to the lake was about forty-five minutes. Allison and Isaac were the champs at it, moving faster than the others enough that they were both out of sight. Jackson, Danny, and Scott were all up ahead together while Lydia and Stiles pulled in the rear with Derek, who Stiles was pretty sure was just hanging around with him because Stiles was definitely not cut out for hiking. Seriously, who even thought this was ever a good idea. Both he and Lydia struggled to follow along, out of their element and casting each other ludicrous glances silently asking each other why either of them agreed to come along. Stiles had gotten severely out of shape after quitting lacrosse. He'd maintained his normal body, but lost all his stamina and endurance.

"Sometimes I worry about what'll happen to the planet when we destroy the forests and wilderness," Stiles started, "This is one of those times when I understand why. Cars are much definitely the superior form of transportation."

"I hope you're not talking about your jeep right now," Lydia commented. Stiles narrowed his eyes at her and swore to her that if she didn't watch her mouth he would turn her hair green. Lydia responded that she had an excellent hairdresser who was plenty capable of taking care of green hair.

"Green skin, then," Stiles rebutted.

"A little Wizard of Oz, but I'll make it work," Lydia said, smirking. It was hard to threaten Lydia, Stile would admit.

Gabbi and her pack had to disguise their scent. They bathed themselves in a currently uninhabited house using the most awful, foul smelling ingredients they could find in the forest. Ratting it in their hair and rubbing it into their skin. They needed to get closer to Derek without being discovered; quietly stalking their prey would be useless if they were caught ahead of the scheduled execution.

Gabbi wasn't satisfied until she couldn't recognize a scent even when she was upwind of the other two. Luna was less than pleased at losing her girlish appearance and trademark adorableness. What if they needed to get some food from some other campers? They'd have to go with Lana's straight-forward method and take what they needed. It's not like anyone could stop them.

"Let's go," Gabbi said, and the three of them leapt into the forest, running half the distance and then walking the rest of the way to the lake, where they skulked in the trees, watching and waiting. Stiles and Derek would break off from the rest of them eventually. It was only just a matter of time.

When they got to the lake Stiles was amazed at how clear the water was. He could see straight through the water. There were little fish swimming near the shore and things crawling along the bottom. The light glistened off the surface of the water and cast reflections on the trees around them. Stiles toed the edge of the water which felt like ice, but he didn't notice it a second later because the same warm tingling sensation that he'd gotten from the fire surged beneath his skin again as he connected with the anchor. The small fish swarmed in a circle around his feet and dispersed themselves when he stepped out. His feet turning to ice as he disconnected from the large anchor and the tingling warmth left his skin.

Stiles spent a lot of the time at the lake sitting and watching, having as much fun lying on his stomach next to Lydia as the others were daring to jump in the water, cold as it was. Jackson, Isaac, and Scott had to race, of course, and Lydia and Allison cheered for them. Derek called Jackson the winner, which was ironic because a year ago he couldn't swim if he wanted to. The comment, luckily unheard by Danny, got Stiles smacked in the arm by Lydia. They didn't make jokes about that, Stiles, it was a hard time for Jackson.

They did play volleyball, of course. How could they not? It was a rough game and Stiles was confident the only people not cheating were the humans who were good enough without their powers. The match got nearly as heated as some of the fights that they'd been a part of except without the copious bloodshed and terror aching in their bones. Having Lydia and Allison on the same team had clearly been a mistake, as the two were a force to be reckoned with. Setting and spiking the ball for each other whenever the opportunity arose or rejecting the other team’s advances before they could even make one.

Stiles was on the receiving end of one of Allison's spikes and it caused his hands to ache as he sent the ball flying out of bounds. He was suddenly grateful for the large body of water nearby because he might need it to fix himself up after to game.

The other big event that Stiles was enjoying that day was Derek in swim shorts. He'd seen Derek naked plenty of times, but he was still attractive as fucking hell dripping with water in a pair of trunks that clung to his ass like no one’s business. Teasing Stiles the whole time. His hair was a mess of tangles and lumps and he hoped to god he didn't smell as horny as he felt to the other wolves.

"So how was Derek last night?" Lydia asked as they were laying back out on a blanket, "Did you two rustle up any fun in bed?" Stiles spasmed and looked at her open mouthed. She did know that werewolves had super hearing, right? That was something she understood? Because he was not going to talk about his sex life with his best friend and two other friends listening in as well as Derek.

"We didn't have sex last night, Lydia. I'm pretty sure you were the one who asked us not to," Stiles replied. Lydia smirked and looked towards Derek and the other boys who were playing some kind of three on two football game. Stiles didn't even know they'd brought a football.

"I don't know, I might understand why you wouldn't be able to resist with that man," She said, "He is the finest specimen here after all," Stiles was pretty sure he saw Jackson twitch and glance back at them, he snorted at it. Lydia was probably doing it on purpose. Lydia turned her questions to Allison asking about Scott.

"You do know he can hear you, right?" Allison responded instead of answering questions.

"You two are no fun at all," Lydia said, "The whole point is that the boys can hear us. I want to see them squirm. Now tell me, who do we think is better in bed?" Stiles laughed then and mentioned that none of them had tried out Isaac yet. Isaac tripped over his own feet and Derek's head whipped around. The three of them clutched each other in tears of laughter. It was so much funnier watching a werewolf with super everything lose their balance than it was watching Stiles attempting to do anything involving his feet and his hands.

The topic of conversation soon redirected, by Lydia of course, back to Stiles's sex life and Stiles directed his gaze at the back of Derek's head and he felt a tug in his gut as he began to stiffen thinking about it. Danny couldn't hear him and now was a great opportunity to mess with Scott (and others) as well as try and get Derek as turned on as he was right now.

He began to describe in excruciating detail how Derek's calloused and rough hands gripped his sides and his hips, how his mouth trailed down Stiles's neck, barely brushing the skin. How his stubble felt against his inner thigh and how Derek knew just how hard to push and how slowly to move to keep Stiles in pleasurable agony. The slip and grip of their bodies lightly covered in sweat pushing together and when they separated the shock of cold air against where they'd kept each other warm.

He was watching Derek the whole time he was talking so he didn't see the ball flying straight for his head until it had met his mark. Scott was blushing and Isaac and Jackson weren't meeting anybody's gaze. Lydia was watching Stiles with her mouth open and Allison was keenly interested in the book that she'd brought with her. Derek was looking at him with the look in his eyes that Stiles was going for. Satisfied that he'd done exactly what he was aiming for Stiles threw the ball into the water to get back at Scott for pegging him in his now slightly aching head. He might have used some magic to send it a little further than he was capable of throwing it, but, to be fair, Scott had used werewolf stuff to hit him that accurately.

While Scott swam out to get the ball the rest of them cleaned up the mess they'd made, gathering all empty water bottles, soda cans and other assorted pieces of trash that they'd scattered across the shore of the lake. The hike back was probably something to laugh at as Scott, Isaac and Jackson pretty much took off ahead of everyone else. Danny hiked with Allison this time, just a little further ahead of Lydia, Stiles and Derek were bringing up the rear again.

"I don't suppose there's any way you'd be willing to film-" Lydia started, but Derek interrupted, cutting her off with a definitive and firm 'No.' "Alright, alright," Lydia defended, "There's no harm in asking, right?" No one answered. Stiles' hand found Derek’s, worried he might have somehow made him angry, but Derek took his hand in his own, rubbing his thumb in circles on the back of Stiles's hand. Confident that things were good between them he leaned over to kiss Derek as they walked and Derek pecked him quickly, but breathed assurance that later was the time into Stiles's ear. He was sure that Lydia heard though.

They got back to the cabin and Scott, Jackson, and Isaac were already collecting wood for a fire. Stiles set about helping with them and Derek cooked them dinner. Chris Argent checked in on them again and hung around for the barbecue, arguing with Derek about the proper way to grill a hamburger. It felt domestic to Stiles who smiled because everything about all of them was the opposite of domestic. Ignoring the fact that they were actually in the middle of nowhere.

While they were lounging around the fire that night, Stiles looked across the flames and caught Derek staring at him, Stiles raised his eyebrows asking him, 'Now?' with his eyes. Derek's lips turned up lightly and he nodded. Derek stood and walked towards the cabin, but veered around it, heading towards the back. Stiles waited a few moments, looking around at everyone else. Lydia widened her eyes at him and shooed him with a nod of her head. Stiles stood and walked around, hands in his pockets. Everyone else knew exactly what he was doing, but Stiles tried to pretend otherwise because it would definitely be less awkward that way.

Yeah, he didn't want to think about Scott thinking about him and Derek and no that wasn't going to happen, that wasn't allowed. Stop thinking, Stiles. This isn't the first time you've had sex with Derek this was just the first time other people knew he was doing it at the same time that he was doing it. Derek wasn't right behind the house (screw calling it a cabin there was no way this thing was anywhere near cabin material), but was leaning against a tree behind it, when he saw that Stiles had seen him he continued walking into the forest.

Stiles followed him deeper into the forest and finally asked quietly how far they were going when Derek said they were going far enough away that no werewolf could hear Stiles when he screamed out Derek's name. Stiles swallowed and he was throbbing in his pants already, without even being touched or kissed. He wasn't going to last very long if Derek was going to fuck him.

They finally came to where Derek decided was far enough and he was leaning against another tree. Stiles walked up to him and took his hand in his as they started kissing. It was hot and passionate, their teeth sometimes clicking together in the fury. There was a stream next to them that bubbled quietly in the background and, apart from that, Stiles couldn't hear any other wildlife, no crickets chirped, no frogs croaked. No nocturnal birds sang. It was almost eery, but Derek's hands were tugging at the zipper of Stiles's hoodie and they were pulling it off, careful to throw it in the opposite direction.

Stiles didn't know when it happened exactly, he guessed he was glad he was still fully clothed for it. But one second his hand was pressed against Derek's dick in his jeans, rubbing it slowly through his jeans and a second later he lay face down in the stream with four excruciating holes from Gabbi's claws in his ribcage. He gasped, unable to breathe, choking on blood and dirt and water, his body spasming.

Gabbi had followed them from the lake. She was alone, but Lana and Luna were in the surrounding forest somewhere. It was a good sign on their part because if Gabbi couldn't scent her own pack that meant none of the wolves foolishly playing ridiculous games on the shore of the lake could either. She listened to each excruciating detail of Stiles describing his intimacy with Derek. She nearly revealed herself right there, but knew that she'd be dead in a second if she did. She could probably get Stiles, but if one of Derek's betas killed her they would become alpha of her pack and that would leave Derek alive and probably meant the death of her pack. She'd grown fond of Lana and Luna and couldn't let that be a possibility.

Following them as they walked back to the forest was more difficult. She was sure that that was when Stiles and Derek would break off, but they didn't and she only grew more and more angry watching them do nothing, but sit around their fire and just sit there and sit there and sit there. It took all of her self-control just to not grunt of groan in frustration. She sat there want waited, glaring at Stiles from a distance, becoming increasingly impatient.

Finally as night fell she saw Derek walk to the back of their cabin and Stiles following him a minute later. Following them through the forest was easier this time because both of them were distracted by their hormones and each other. Gabbi was probably unnecessarily close to them and Derek didn't even suspect a thing. They started kissing and Lana and Luna both made their presence known across from her with their eyes. Blue and golden appearing in the dark. Gabbi's smile uncurled and her eye shone red as she shifted and shot forward, digging her claws deep within Stiles's ribcage and throwing him off of Derek who unleashed a terrible roar that vibrated Gabbi's teeth.

Derek threw himself onto Gabbi, turning as they fell to the ground and rolled off her. His rage caused him to shift completely and she did the same. Stiles watched with the one eye that was above water, unable to breath, unable to move. He could barely focus. All he knew was that things were happening, bad things. He didn't even see if it was Gabbi who had killed him, but as he felt the life ebbing out of his fingers and toes he knew it didn't matter because Derek was going to kill whoever did this to him.

Stiles closed his other eye and the last thing he heard before he passed out was another roar, but not of anger as it was before, this time the roar held grief and terror and pain. It was the saddest thing Stiles had ever heard, he thought to himself, it was terrible.

Lana and Luna hadn't stayed for the fight with Gabbi and Derek, but had headed back towards the cabin, sure that their alpha had been able to take care of everything now that the witch was dead. They'd underestimated Derek's roar though and were met not far from where Stiles's corpse lay by the three werewolves Derek had kept. Pathetic boys. Lana would take care of the older two and Luna danced around the boy with curly hair. Lana stood her ground as Scott charged her and she easily tossed him over her shoulder and threw him into a tree a dozen yards away. Jackson was even easier to take care of, being as inexperienced as he was, and she drove him into the ground, digging her claws into his back and paralyzing him until she could kill him later, smiling widely as she did so.

Scott had come running back at her, but she lashed her claws out and tore into his side. These wolves had no idea as to what they were doing. Scott wasn't down for long, though, already healing. She leapt away into the forest knowing that Jackson would heal in a few more minutes to the point where he would walk and move again. That was plenty of time to break Scott and get back. She lured Scott all the way back to the stream where his friend lay, lifeless and unmoving and Scott didn't notice until the last second. He stopped, staring at his best friend in the stream and roared as loud and as furiously as any alpha had. Fury and rage filled his vision as he lunged at Lana. Catching her off-guard with his passion. He knocked her off of his feet, ignoring for once his need to try and preserve the person he was fighting. He hadn't killed anyone before, but he was ready to now. His claws grazed her side as she side stepped him and ran off. Abandoning the fight. Scott ran to Stiles's side, ignoring the roars coming from the forest as the others fought and picking him up.

His hands searched Stiles's side where his shirt was torn for the wound, but only found clean skin. He pushed an ear to Stiles's chest and heard the faintest of heartbeats and a rattle in his lungs. Scrambling to dry ground Scott lay him on his back. He'd swore never to kiss Stiles again, but he would kiss him a thousand times if he would come back right now. He tried to remember as best he could what he learned from a CPR video he'd had to watch in science years ago. He pushed light as he could on Stiles’ chest, knowing that if he tried to be more forceful his lack of control would cause him to break Stiles' chest open. Five pumps, just below the sternum and then he leaned in, not hesitation to breathe deep into Stiles' lungs. He repeated the process a few times and finally, finally, he sputtered, releasing the water from his lungs. His eyes shooting open as he gasped for breath.

Scott pulled him in for a hug and Stiles returned it, hugging back forcefully and gripping his shirt in his hands. They were both soaking wet in their clothes. There was a crash and a roar that brought them back to their senses and they both jumped up, Stiles using the water in his clothes to bring him back to full health. It was easy to follow the trail that Gabbi and Derek had left; their path of destruction was obvious to anyone who might just stumble along through there. They'd traveled so far from where Stiles had died, yes, Stiles was going to refer to it as when he'd died because Scott actually had to push his ear to Stiles chest to realize he wasn't actually dead and if it took that much effort from a werewolf to hear his heart then no human would be able to hear it at all and so he was dead. Stiles had died.

Lana ran back to Luna who was still toying with Isaac trying to catch her. When Lana called it was easy for Luna to trip him up and dig her claws into his spine, paralyzing him the way that Lana had done to Jackson. They ran off in the direction of their alpha. Lana was worried that the witch was still alive and, if he was, they needed to get out of there. But Gabbi wouldn't leave unless everyone was dead or she died first. Lana wasn't going to let that happen, so she ran with Luna at her side as fast as she could through the forest where Gabbi and Derek were circling each other, healing as fast as the other struck. Alphas could leave lasting marks on betas, but not on each other. This fight could go on for an eternity or until the witch got there, whichever happened first.

Lana took the opportunity. She lunged forward and tackled Derek from the side, knocking his larger form to the ground, her claws digging deep and finding latches on his bones. Gabbi shifted back into her beta form, walking over and leaning down to stroke Derek's cheek, jerking her hand back as he lashed to bite her.

"Are the others dead, Lana?" The pain in his sides caused Derek to shift back into his beta form as his body grew weaker. The light fading from his eyes. Lana's eyes became brighter as the transfer of energy began. She released her claws from him and disconnected before he died so that Gabbi could take his life and his alpha power wouldn't shift to her.

"The witch might be alive," Lana said, stern, "We have to go, kill him and let's get out of here." Gabbi's eyes widened at her words. It was impossible. There was no way a human could have survived how far she'd sunk her claws in. He should have been dead the moment he'd landed in the brook.

She screamed in frustration. The brook. Water was the anchor for healing. She hated Stiles more than she hated Derek at this point because no matter what she did the boy did not die. She could only hope he'd respond without thinking the same way Derek did when he thought Stiles had died. They had come too far to leave without any death on their hands. She needed to kill Derek and be satisfied with something. She had Lana and Luna prop him up the same way that they'd held Allison at homecoming, one on either side. Arms outstretched, but to keep him from healing they both had their claws embedded in his back, lightly tapping his spinal cord. Derek couldn't move if he wanted to and he didn't have the energy or strength to try.

Stiles and Scott burst through the trees, Jackson and Isaac had caught up to them, but they sent them back to check on everyone else. Danny was probably freaking out at the startling supernatural revelation. The boys had unwillingly shifted in front of him when Derek had roared the first time. It was their alpha calling and they couldn't do anything about it.

Scott was moving slowly so that Stiles could keep up, but they still had a ways to go. Stiles couldn't stop worrying, thinking about Derek. He'd thought he'd died and Derek had said before that if Gabbi had succeeded he wouldn't be able to put up a fight, at least not for long. Stiles needed to hurry, he needed to get there and use his magic to help Derek. He had the sickest feeling in his gut and it could have been from almost dying and using magic to bring himself back, but he knew he was sick with worry and fear and dread and he wanted to scream. He wanted to yell and tear trees from the ground because he knew he could. He wanted to destroy everything in this forest just to find Gabbi and disassemble her atom by atom. He wanted to torture her for everything she'd done and he thought this must be what Gabbi feels like towards him and Derek for killing Kate. It didn't make him sympathize with her though. He still hated everything that she was and couldn't get the idea of killing her out of his mind.

They were closing in on them, Stiles could feel it, he just knew that they were about to see them through the trees any second now. That their glowing eyes would burn through and Stiles would be able to flick them off, pair by pair like light switches as he drew the life from their breath. If Derek was hurt or dead, Hell would come to earth and destruction would follow his footsteps like the legend that Deaton had told him. He was the most powerful witch in centuries and you don't fuck with that kind of magic, Gabbi.


	10. Lightning

They came upon the scene and Stiles caught his breath. Derek was alive. He was alive. It was a short lived relief however as he fully took in the scene. Gabbi standing and waiting, claws out and ready to kill Derek with Lana and Luna holding him in place, claws already embedded inside of him.

Seeing the blood drip down their hands into small damps spots on the ground filled him with fear. He was a werewolf he just needed the claws out of them for a while and stiles still had soaking wet clothes he could heal him with magic.

Gabbi laughed and it seemed like her laugh lasted for hours reverberating through the forest, echoing in Stiles' ears, but he had no eyes for Gabbi. His eyes were locked with Derek's who was pleading with him to go, to run. Run away? That wasn't going to happen. Stiles was never going to run away when Derek needed him, but Stiles was wrong. Gabbi's laugh didn't last for hours. It was seconds and she wasted no time after that whirling around she slashed at Derek's throat, blood spattering across Lana and Luna and she continued whirling so that a few drops of it flew off and landed across Stiles's face and neck, and Derek fell to the ground with a thud as Lana and Luna tore their claws out of him. Stiles's voice went rasp as he screamed out Derek's name and pushed past the girls to clutch at the man. Scott growled and charged, but was tossed to the ground where he lay still.

"We need to go," Lana said, but Gabbi held up a finger at her, she wanted to enjoy this. Seeing everything about Stiles break down and collapse. She was filled with warm satisfaction that Kate had been avenged and their debt with each other settled.

Stiles clutched and released at Derek's shirt and pulled him into his lap, holding his head in his hands. His eyes were open, but his gaze was blank and blood was pouring out of his throat, covering Stiles' body and hands. Stiles felt a warmth under his skin, tingling underneath it as he had with the large fire and the lake when he'd connected with them and his grief turned to rage. The warmth burned hotter until it was fire underneath his skin and in his chest. He lay Derek on the ground and stood, slowly turning to face the wolves who were staring at him with their mouths open.

Stiles's eyes were glowing white as they had the day that he'd forced them to shift into humans after Erica had been killed. And now they'd killed Derek, who had possibly meant more to him than anyone else ever would. Stiles connected with Derek's body and in his love and loss, his grief and anger, he used Derek as his anchor for this. It was how he could give Derek actual revenge. Stiles lost his thoughts, his emotions, his will to his anchor and Gabbi had killed any chance at survival she and her pack had had when she killed Derek.

Arms wide, and drenched in Derek's blood, Stiles rose off the ground, white eyes fixed upon the wolves who had shifted human and were now clearly terrified.

"Gabbi!" Lana screamed and it was the first time Stiles heard her say anything with any kind of emotional attachment. Fear. Fear for him, and for what he was and what he could do to her and Gabbi. "I can't move!"

"I know," Gabbi said, turning her head back towards Lana, "I can't either." Static crackled and the air grew tight, wind blew from all directions and swirled up dust and blood-caked leaves in a flurry. Gabbi reached a hand back and rested it on Lana's cheek, grabbing Luna's hand as tears streamed down her face. "I'm sorry," she gasped, choking, "I'm so sorry." Lana's hand reached up and covered Gabbi's, her other resting on Luna's shoulder. She fixed a firm gaze on Gabbi and nodded before looking upward at Stiles who was staring them down from above. The storm clouds were only apparent that they were there by the stars that blinked out of existence. They held hands as they awaited their fate, which did not take long. They knew it was coming and were ready for it, ready to die facing it instead of running like cowards.

Gabbi did not choose weak women for her pack, she chose girls who had strong minds, and hearts. So they faced their demise without showing signs of fear and with acceptance. The three of them straightening their shoulders and backs, maintaining eye contact with Stiles who had raised his hands above his heads now. The rain preluded their death only by a second and they saw the flash, but didn't have time to hear the thunder before they had died. The thunder roared for several minutes as the lightning repeatedly struck the same spot over and over again until the three of them were nothing, but charcoal corpses. Stiles lowered himself to the ground slowly, the wind slowing as he touched down and then stopping completely. The rain weakened and faded as the glow from his eyes disappeared, the fire under his skin returning to a dull tingle.

He didn't want to turn around and face Derek again. He didn't know what would happen if he kept looking at him, tried to touch him. The rain would have washed the blood away and you'd be able to see each claw mark in his throat, each slash. The folds of skin that hung limp from his neck.

A hand pressed to his shoulder and Stiles assumed it was Scott, which caused him to glance to where Scott had been thrown, still collapsed on the ground and unconscious. The hand spun him around and Derek pulled him in, hugging him so tight that the breath was forced from his lungs. Stiles choked at first and then his arms encircled Derek's body, clutching him. Derek was alive.

Derek was alive.

He started crying again and pushed his face into Derek's neck, choking and gasping as he cried harder than he had ever done so before. Relief and happiness flooded his system with the adrenaline. His throat wasn't sore or hoarse from when he screamed Derek's name earlier. His clutching and crying became vocal when he'd regained enough control to breathe deeply again and gasp out Derek's name over and over. Derek just stood there and held him while Stiles fell apart and put himself together again.

Scott woke up and stood to the side and waited, eventually Stiles was able to detach himself from Derek only to pull him in to kiss him repeatedly, hands touching Derek's face, fingers trailing over his throat where there wasn't even a scar and reaching tentatively around his shoulders to find nothing but smooth skin and torn fabric soaked with blood.

They left the bodies behind finally and walked the long way back to the cabin where everyone was waiting for them. Light began to shine through the trees by the time they'd finally made it back and Stiles had no idea how much time had actually passed during that whole exchange. It had felt like it had taken an hour at most, but it hadn't. Danny had had a minor panic attack at the revelation that his friends were actually all part of the supernatural, but after talking to Jackson he was going to be fine.

Chris and Derek went back to where the three bodies were in the forest later and Stiles almost didn't let Derek go. He didn't want to be away from him, wanted to keep holding him and touching him, pressing his hands to his neck and back the way Derek kept pressing them to his side as if they didn't believe that they should both really be dead right now. They all showered and cleaned up, changing their clothes and burning the ones soaked in blood because they were torn and useless anyways.

Stiles and Scott were inseparable as well, Scott having been convinced that Stiles was dead for a second they kept hugging each other and clasping each other on the shoulders and no one else could really understand because they hadn't gone through exactly what they had. Scott had thought he'd lost his best friend and Stiles had thought he'd lost the love of his life. It was the most jarring thing either of them had ever experienced. The others sympathized with Stiles the best they could, but Stiles was standing and breathing and whole before them so they said they couldn't imagine what Scott was really feeling. Scott couldn't keep himself from smiling though and so he just said he was really happy. Really, really happy.

They decided to go home early for obvious reasons, but no one had to know what had happened. They would just say that they got bored of the wilderness fast or didn't think they could spend the rest of their spring break there or the boys ate too much food or something. Anything really, because there had been no deaths. No one knew where the bodies were and, even if they did find them, they'd been burnt to almost nothing by lightning and there was no way anyone could identify them. No way to attach them to Jackson's cabin because they'd been moved extraordinarily far away. Stiles and Derek took the backseat in Stiles' jeep this time, Scott driving and Isaac sitting shotgun. Stiles lay across the seats, his body shoved under Derek's arm and his arm looped around his torso as usual. He tried not to think about the girls he'd killed because he didn't want to know that he didn't regret it.

So he thought about Derek and Derek's apartment. About the picture of Laura in his living room. About when Derek nursed him back to health the first time he used too much magic and doing the same when he was sick. He thought of the time his dad caught him and Derek making out in his jeep and cracked a smile, faint and weak. The time that he first kissed Derek after Erica died and there were tears on his cheeks then, too. How Derek kissed back and waking up the next morning in his bed and feeling comfortable. He felt comfortable now. Derek's body was warm and inviting and Stiles wished he could curl up inside his chest and never come out, just sit there, a part of Derek next to his heart, happy and content.

He hadn't slept in over twenty-four hours at this point and he fell asleep against Derek, waking up as Scott pulled into his driveway. They got out and hugged again and Scott clapped him on the shoulder vocalizing how relieved he was that Stiles was still alive and don't fucking think about nearly getting killed again or Scott would finish the job. Stiles might be able to keep that promise for a small favor. What was that? Just a kiss. Stiles got slapped upside the head.

"Wow, dude, thanks for being an upstanding friend. I don't know what I'd do without you," Stiles joked before he jumped back into his jeep. Derek was in the passenger seat waiting and Stiles knew that he didn't want to go home yet, he couldn't let Derek out of his sight yet. Derek didn't object going back to his apartment and being there in the quiet with no crickets and no frogs and no owls, without the rush of the trees and without the cool air around them felt eery and bland. Like it was wrong somehow, like being home was wrong.

Stiles had just grown accustomed to terror and now that there was no presiding threat again he wasn't sure whether to feel relieved anymore or to be alert for the next one. This was his life now, especially now that he was in love with a werewolf and he was a witch. He didn't know what his life was going to be like anymore, but the werewolf part of it was going to be worth it at least. The magic too, he guessed, but mostly a certain alpha.

Derek said he was going to take a shower and Stiles gave him five minutes before he went into the bathroom and stripped down to join him. He stepped into the shower and Derek kept his back to Stiles while Stiles' hands moved over his skin again and again, fingers trailing gently over where he'd been skewered by Lana and Luna and massaging deeply between his shoulders and on the outer edges of his spine. Derek turned around, cupping Stiles' face in one hand, the other resting where he'd been injured the day before. Almost a whole day had passed and it was already just a memory.

Derek kissed him softly and sweetly, letting each kiss linger just a moment before breaking. He trailed his kisses down his chin and his neck kissing his chest and planting four kisses precisely where he'd been nearly killed. They had sex, but it was slow and long and the water turned from hot to cold by the time they were done. When they finished they toweled each other off, Stiles laughing as he dried Derek's hair for him and seeing it spike out everywhere and headed into Derek's bedroom. They slept without clothes on, tangling against each other skin on skin and they woke up sweaty and sticky the next morning because of it.

Stiles and the rest of the kids still had the whole week of spring break left but they'd made no plans for what to do so Stiles went home, reluctantly because it would be the first time he'd left Derek since everything had happened. He talked to his dad, assured him that everything was alright and they only came back because they'd eaten all the food already. His dad stared open-mouthed for a second before laughing full and heartily, his eyes crinkling at the corners like they hadn’t in a while.

"Sounds like you," he said, rubbing Stiles head before heading off to work. Stiles called Scott who called Isaac who called Lydia who was with Jackson already and called Allison who called Danny in an attempt to save what was left of their spring break. This wasn't the first time they'd avoided death and disaster. They could still have fun this week, right?

Stiles showed up at Derek's apartment unannounced, which was ok now, but with bags full of groceries and started setting up with a very confused Derek. Stiles smiled at him when he was asked what was going on. He immediately caught on when Isaac and Scott showed up with Scott's mom's famous mac and cheese. Lydia was in tow with Allison who each brought plates of cookies, Stiles joking that even Allison had a girly side he guessed. Jackson and Danny showed up last. Jackson had bought rolls from a store, but didn't even bother taking them out of their packaging and shoving them onto a plate to pretend like someone in his house had made them. He admitted it wasn't worth it because neither of his parents cooked anyways so why bother? Danny brought some Hawaiian food. Stiles didn't know what it was and he couldn't pronounce the name, all he knew was that it looked and smelled delicious and he would later verify that when he took a bite.

Stiles made Derek cook the same steaks that he'd cooked the first night they'd eaten dinner together, before Stiles had realized he was gay and when he first noticed how great Derek's smile was and how nice his laugh was. Stiles made a salad because that was about as far as his cooking prowess went, but he did pick out the music and the movie, which was more useful than the salad that went untouched by everyone except for Lydia and Stiles. Even Allison had seconds of steak without looking at the veggies and the two of them tsked at her as she did so. She stuck her tongue out at them and sat down on the ground with her plate next to Scott.

They smiled at each other and talked for a while, eventually Scott braved reaching he arm around Allison who hesitated. Scott noticed and went to pull his arm back, but she kind of twitched a little as she settled into his side, a position Stiles was familiar with sitting with Derek on the couch or in his bed. He smiled because things were looking good for his friends. Scott and Allison would get back together, he was sure of it. His girl best friend (which is what Stiles had taken to calling Lydia because he refused to become Lydia's gay best friend) was sitting next to him on the couch while the other boys talked lacrosse in the kitchen. Derek leaning against the doorway and smiling at all of them.

After dinner it was time for the movie and they all found places perched around the couch somehow. Derek and Stiles were pushed closer together than usual because Lydia and Jackson had the other side of the couch, Stiles claiming that only established couples got to sit on the comfy seat. Everyone else had to lie on the ground, so they pushed the coffee table out of the way and Scott settled up against Stiles's shins, which was uncomfortable, but Stiles could deal with it. Danny settled between Jackson's legs and Isaac sat between the two. They played the movie, which was The Avengers, Stiles' pick. No one had any desire to complain except for when Stiles continuously interrupted the dialogue with his commentary about Black Widow and Hawkeye and how he'd like to see Derek in Hawk's pants.

By the end of the movie he was pretty sure that everyone in the room had swatted, elbowed or kicked him at least once. No one left, yet, that wasn't in the plans. Instead they set out the girls' cookies and everyone indulged, Derek sitting from a distance and watching them enjoy themselves. As if the weekend at the cabin had never happened. He was glad now that he'd gone along with all of Stiles' friends. Kids he knew and didn't know. He'd felt out of place and awkward, being older, not in school anymore, not having any real friends in a long time. The ones he thought he'd had had all been killed, absent, or tried to kill his boyfriend. He was glad though because now he wasn't some figure to fear for all of them, someone who demanded respect through power. They were comfortable enough now in his presence that they could come over to his home and hang out without having to ask about werewolf lore or what the plan of action was against the big bad of the week.

Derek came up behind Stiles and grabbed him around the waist, resting his chin on his shoulder. Stiles smiled and pressed his cheek into Derek, turning to kiss him on the cheek before sticking a cookie in his mouth.

"You need to try Lydia's and Allison's cookies. Oh my god, they're amazing! I'm pretty sure they laced them with cocaine or something," Stiles joked, he had four in his hand and one in his mouth and Derek had to admit they were pretty good, complimenting the girls on their baking expertise. That was something Derek had never learned to do.

Stiles laughed at that comment saying he was imagining Derek baking cupcakes now and the others laughed as well, making their own jokes about Derek in a frilly pink apron with oven mitts on and flour on his cheek. Derek made a comment about Stiles wearing something lacy and frilly that wasn't an apron and Scott and Stiles both choked on their cookies. Stiles whispering about how Derek promised he wouldn't tell anybody about that and Scott protesting loudly that he did not need any more confirmation for it and to please stop talking. Lydia asked if there were pictures and Derek said of course before crying out at the pinch Stiles gave him, making sure to break skin just because he knew that Derek would heal in no time.

The night finished off with a puppy pile in the middle of the living room floor. Everyone's stomachs were full of delicious food and minimal amounts of salad that Stiles and Lydia both sadly emptied the mostly full bowl into the garbage dramatizing their worry over their friends declining health. Derek and Stiles claimed the couch to sleep on, Stiles proclaiming that as alpha and alpha's lover they were in charge so everyone had to suck it up and sleep on the ground. They fell asleep one by one as they kept talking and making jokes in the dark. Nothing else to do really except to enjoy each other’s presence.

After Spring Break ended and they had to go back to school, it seemed like someone had hit the fast forward button on Stiles' life. He had so many things going on at once, his homework seemed to pile up higher and higher and for each assignment he completed his teachers replaced with two more. He wrote dozens of pages in essays for history and thousands of words for the second part of his manuscript in creative writing, which he'd been able to bump up into an A minus average that semester.

Lydia and him were studying together for trig every chance they got together and it was more of a tutoring session to keep Stiles above water in that class as it was the one he had the hardest time focusing on. The rest of his free time when not doing his own schoolwork and working with Lydia was devoted to Scott and making sure that the idiot kept his grades at a B average for that semester. He wasn't going to let his best friend sink now that he and Allison had finally gotten back together.

It was a huge relief when they got back together because it meant that Scott time was split between him, Allison, and Isaac now which meant that there were few, brief instances that might happen on Sunday evenings when Stiles would get to see Derek. He felt bad having to cut their time down to such a small period every week, but it was ok with Derek. Derek wanted him to do well and succeed. He wanted him to get into college and come back to him on thanksgiving and Christmas and for spring break. They'd have whole summers to spend together, so now would be the best time for them to get used to being apart.

They weren't going to break up, Stiles made that very, very clear. They still had Stiles' whole senior year anyways, so why were they even having this conversation? Whatever, they might as well talk about it now instead of pretend like it wasn't happening and then arguing over everything later. The cardinal rule, though, was that they would not break up. Stiles wouldn't allow it and Derek would laugh at him, pulling him in by the waist and holding the back of his head when he kissed him. Why would Derek ever want to break up with Stiles? Stiles would pause and his eyes would glaze over for a second before becoming as sharp and amber as ever, asking, "Seriously?"

"Completely," Derek said to him, pressing a kiss to his lips again and Stiles's heart would swell almost to bursting point before he would have to say goodbye to Derek and return to his stupid butt load of work that he had to do for school.

Scott won the lacrosse championship with Jackson and they became the heroes of the school. Everyone forgot who Stiles was and Stiles liked it better that way.

The semester was ending finally and Stiles was working on his manuscript, the final assignment to go through and edit the whole thing one last time. Which Stiles thought was a piece of crap because weren't there people who specifically had the job just to edit them? His damned manuscript was a hundred and fifty eight-and-a-half-by-eleven pages for crying out loud. His settings journal sat full with extra pages tucked inside, a hefty ‘A’ written in red sharpie on the front cover glowing with Stiles' pride at the achievement.

He finally finished editing his manuscript three days into the assignment, but he wasn't ready to turn it in yet. He wanted someone to read it first. So he called the only person who had read it. Danny said of course and Stiles handed him a copy of it at school, telling him that he had until Friday to give his final approval.

Thursday Danny approached him saying he'd finished.

"It's weird," Danny said, handing the stack of papers back, "Knowing about all the stuff now I can put everything together in my mind and it just everything makes sense now."

"Yeah?" Stiles asked, "So what do you think? 'A' material?"

"Definitely," Danny told him, "All of that stuff really happened?"

"Yeah, all of it, I just wrote it down," Stiles said. "It feels like closure, you know? Like a reminder that it all actually happened and that this life isn't normal for long."

"Has Derek read it yet?"

"No. Nonono. I'd be too embarrassed to show Derek," Stiles laughed.

"He should read it," Danny said, "He is the main character, after all, even if his name is Darren Hart in this and he's only twenty years old."

"Thanks for reading it, Danny," Stiles said, putting his hand on Danny's, "It means a lot to me."

"No problem," Danny said. "I'd still do anything for you, even if we're not together anymore."

"Same, bro," Stiles said.

Danny laughed and said, "Derek's right you really do ruin every good moment."

So Stiles told Derek about the assignment and what topic he'd chosen. Derek was confused at first, unsure if it was a good idea for Stiles to write about it, but Stiles assured him that everything took place in a different town; everyone had different names and ages.

"What's it called?" Derek asked, taking the stack from Stiles, agreeing to read it. It had no title page, just started off with 'Chapter One.'

"Anchor," Stiles said and Derek glanced up at him. "The story is about, it's about you. I had to rework it a little bit, but you're the main character. You're the one who I wanted to write about. I named it Anchor because you're my anchor Derek. You sit in me and keep me tethered to the ground and you're everything that's strong about me. You give me my power, my will. Everything I've done and everything I do now it all involves you. You're my every thought, my every breath. I just didn't feel right writing about anything or anyone else. Sure, everyone else is in there, but it's you. The whole thing is you." Derek sat down and read the story; turning each page and setting it next to him face down as he read. There were too many for a staple to punch through.

There were times when Derek laughed as he read and there were times when he didn't cry, but he looked inexplicably sad. Stiles sat and just watched his facial expressions for hours as Derek read, they stopped to eat, but when everything was cleaned up and put away Derek went right back to reading and Stiles went back to watching. It was his last assignment of the year and all that was left were his finals and he really should have been studying, but this was important.

He tried to convey everything that he felt about Derek in the story, hoped that the reader would fall in love with Darren Hart the way he'd fallen in love with Derek Hale. It was like he did, but didn't know that he was in love and then he realized it almost as though he'd known the whole time. Like he'd always been in love with Derek Hale and just hadn't been able to properly comprehend it for a while. Then when he did realize it, it was even harder to comprehend, but it was easy to understand. Because Derek was his everything.

Derek finally finished reading and it was three in the morning on Friday. The last Friday before Finals and his manuscript was due that day.

"Well?" Stiles asked, tentatively. He hadn't been this nervous about something in a long time. Probably since last semesters trig final.

Derek looked towards the ground, his mouth opened as if he were about to speak and then he licked his lips and didn't say anything, but he looked Stiles right in the eye, where there were tears floating on the edge of spilling.

"I love you," Derek said and Stiles laughed and he kept laughing as he jumped into Derek's arms and kissed him. His heart rupturing from giddiness and joy. He was a thirteen year old girl for five minutes while he hugged Derek tightly around the neck swearing he loved this man more than anything else and kissing him like a lunatic.

They both had tears in their eyes and Stiles leaned away from Derek, just a little bit, fixing his eyes on Derek's and he raised his ringed hand behind him, pointing at the wall where the light switch was. He leaned in, pressing his teeth against Derek's lips as he smiled into their kiss and used his magic to flip the switch, drenching them in darkness and each other.


End file.
